Remittances Grow Along With International Migration
The number of cross-border migrants and the amount of cash flows across borders to support home communities continue to grow every year. Remittances, as these flows of money are known, are among the fastest-growing international financial flows. Formal remittances doubled between the late 1980s and mid-1990s to almost $60 billion a year, doubled again by 2002, and almost doubled yet again to $208 billion by 2006. The World Bank estimates that recorded remittance flows worldwide added up to $318 billion in 2007. This unprecedented transfer of cash raises new possibilities for economic growth and has captured the interest of policymakers.(October 2008)

Offshoring U.S. Labor Increasing
Offshoring is the movement of jobs and tasks from one country to another, usually from high-cost countries, such as the United States, to low-cost countries where wages are significantly lower. Offshoring is often confused with outsourcing, which is instead the movement of jobs and tasks from within a company to a supplier firm. The offshoring of manufacturing jobs has been occurring for decades, but the offshoring of services jobs is an incipient phenomenon, emerging in substantial numbers since 2002 and growing rapidly. (October 2008)

World Population Highlights: Key Findings From PRB's 2008 World Population Data Sheet (PDF: 854KB)

 This Population Bulletin is the companion report to PRB's 2008 World Population Data Sheet. The Bulletin highlights key findings from the data sheet on: world population trends, nutrition, environment, HIV/AIDS, urbanization, and migration. (BUL63.3, September 2008)

2008 World Population Data Sheet

  PRB's 2008 World Population Data Sheet contains the latest population estimates, projections, and other key indicators for more than 200 countries, including births, deaths, natural increase, infant mortality, life expectancy, urban population, HIV/AIDS prevalence, contraceptive use, GNI PPP per capita, and population per square kilometer. New for the 2008 Data Sheet are data on percent of population in urban areas of 750,000 or more; lifetime risk of maternal death; percent of population undernourished; number of vehicles per 1,000 population; and percent of population with access to an improved drinking water source. (August 2008) 

Population's Role in the Current Food Crisis: Focus on East Africa
The prices of agricultural commodities, including staples of many African diets, have risen sharply over the last several years. Since 2005, the prices of maize and wheat have doubled, and the price of rice has now reached unprecedented levels in several East African countries. According to the World Bank, FAO, and USDA, rising prices are likely to persist through 2015. Population plays an important role in the food crisis. In addition to the numbers of people, migration patterns, rising consumption, and HIV/AIDS prevalence affect the demand and supply of food. (August 2008)

HIV/AIDS Behaviors and Interventions in Chinese Americans
The prevalence of HIV/AIDS increased faster among Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States than in any other group between 2001 and 2004. Asians and Pacific Islanders are the only major U.S. racial or ethnic group with a statistically significant annual increase in the rate of new HIV infections during the first half of the decade, a time when blacks and Hispanics saw their rates decrease. (August 2008)

PRB Discuss Online: "Environmental Change: What Are the Links With Migration?"
Close to 200 million people are living outside their country of birth. Increasing numbers are refugees fleeing their homeland for another country. Human migration can have rapid and complex impacts on rural and urban environments. At the same time, environmental changes, such as drought and rising sea levels, are expected to force millions more people to migrate. In this PRB Discuss Online, Jason Bremner, program director for Population, Health, and Environment at PRB, answered participants' questions on this topic. Read a transcript of the questions and answers. (July 2008

Immigration Gives Catholicism a Boost in the United States
With 62 million adherents, Catholics remain the single largest religious group in the United States. Long-term trends from the General Social Survey, from 1972 through 2006, point to a decline in Protestant religions but show remarkable stability in the proportion of Catholics in the population. New immigrants arriving in the United States—many Catholics from Latin America—have helped offset the decline in religious affiliation among the U.S.-born population in most states. (April 2008)

PRB Discuss Online: "Managing Unauthorized Migration"

Unauthorized migration is a major issue in the United States and many other countries, sometimes generating intense publicity and debate. How can leaders minimize the "push" factors that encourage this type of migration? Trade, investment, and foreign aid, for example, might help create jobs and opportunities in the sending countries that would keep potential migrants home. But do these strategies help slow unauthorized migration? In this PRB Discuss Online, Phil Martin, professor of agricultural economics at the University of California, Davis, and a noted expert on international labor migration, answered participants questions on this topic. Read a transcript of the questions and answers. (March 2008)

Population Losses Mount in U.S. Rural Areas
Despite rapid population growth in parts of the U.S. South and West, 43 percent of all counties lost population since 2000—nearly twice the number of counties that lost population during the 1990s (1,346 counties vs. 689 counties). The data, based on the U.S. Census Bureau's newly released 2007 population estimates, reveal a wide demographic divide between fast- and slow-growing areas. (March 2008)