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In an important paper, KC and his colleagues use the

Jan. 2, 2017 by Elizabeth Duran

In an important paper, KC and his colleagues use the latest data from the U.N. Population Division to explore whether the population trends over the last decade are similar. They found that the U.N.'s projections are significantly different from those of any other country, with more recent estimates of population growth averaging about a 3 percent annual growth rate. The researchers write:

“We are not only seeing a different figure, we are getting an even figure that suggests changes are occurring at a much slower rate. The U.N. projections are consistent with the best estimates of population growth, and we can infer that change is more likely to occur in regions where population growth has slowed down since the 1990s.‡

What matters is not the data itself, but the fact that people are now using the information they are given by the government. These are good data to share with governments, but when you compare a data set for a population in China to one for the U.S., the difference is not as clear cut.

“In his report, KC has used a different methodology, using the best available information, to estimate population growth (which has been done in other countries). He estimates global population growth at about 5.7 percent per decade, and estimates it to start to rise by about 10 percent by 2100. That means a 4.5 percent increase in global population is a much more rapid rate than the current estimate of 3.8 percent. In the U.S., though, the estimated rate is slightly less than 5 percent.

“In the U.S., a 10 percent increase in population is a much more rapid rate than the current estimate of 3.8 percent.

In this case, the 10 percent increase is still a significant amount, but it is not as fast as in the U.S., and it is not much different than the previous estimate.

For the record, this is not a problem for the U.S., it is a problem for China. The U.S. is not a particularly large population-dense country, the country's population is relatively small, and its population is growing at a similar pace. The U.S. is a small country, of course, but it still has large populations and high average annual mortality rates (the rate that is expected to rise to 5 out of 10 by 2100). The U.S. has some of the lowest average annual mortality rates of any major advanced economy—a result of a much larger population.