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From a demographic point of view, after the end of the Second World War, the world appeared to be divided into two major groups: developed countries and the so-called “Third World”. The former included North America, Japan, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, whereas the latter included Asia (except Japan), Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. According to this typology, in 2020, developed countries totalled 1,273 billion inhabitants, i.e. 16.3% of the total world population of 7,794 billion inhabitants¹. But this dichotomy is now outdated, at least in demographic terms, due to the growing disparities between the three continents in which developing countries are located (Table I.1 and Figure I.1).

Table I.1. Population (2020, in millions) and annual growth rate in the major groups (2015–2020 average, in %)

(source: UN DESA 2019)

	Population	%
Worldwide	7,794	1.09
Developed countries	1,273	0.26
Developed countries	6,521	1.26
Per region:
Africa	1,340	2.51
Latin America	653	0.94
Asia	4,641	0.92

Annual growth rates reveal that it is necessary not only to contrast the virtual stagnation of developed countries (0.26%) against the demographic dynamism of developing countries (1.26%), but also to differentiate the rapid growth in Africa from the now more moderate growth observed in Asia and Latin America.

An even more detailed analysis reveals differences within these three continents, especially in Asia and Africa. Thus, sub-Saharan Africa is growing at a rate of 2.65% per year, but this average masks deep contrasts: 1.91% in the north and 1.39% in the south, against 3.05% in Middle Africa and 2.67% in the continent’s east and west. Western and Central Asia are growing faster (1.64%) than East (0.40%) and Southern (1.20%) Asia. The differences between countries in the same region are just as remarkable (Table I.2 and Figure I.2). Size effects play a large part: highly populated countries (South Africa, India, China), often giants relative to their neighbors, weigh heavily on the averages of the sub-regions. South Africa, with its 59.3 million inhabitants (85% of the total) and a rate of 1.37%, largely determines the rate of growth in the sub-region (1.39%), whereas Botswana, which barely totals 2.3 million, is growing much faster (2.07%).

Figure I.1. Annual growth rate of major groups (2015–2020 average, in %)

(sources: Charbit (design); Opurez, IRD-Ceped (realization)). For a color version of this figure, see www.iste.co.uk/charbit/demographic.zip

Similarly, in Central and Southern Asia, India (1,380 billion with a growth rate of 1.04% per year), Pakistan (220 million and 2.05%) and Bangladesh (164 million and 1.05%) largely determine the sub-regional rate (1.20%), since these three countries on their own account for 90.9% of the sub-region’s total population. Finally, Western Asia, which includes countries with high growth rates (Iraq 2.46%, Palestine 2.38%, Yemen 2.37%), contrasts with other Asian sub-regions: 1.64% against 0.40% in East Asia, for example. This low rate is explained by China’s slow growth (0.46%), a demographic giant of 1,344 billion inhabitants, which represents 80.3% of the population in this sub-region.

What is more, the major dichotomy between developed and developing countries is questionable because, in some countries considered to be developing, fertility rates are lower than in some industrialized countries. This is the case for China (1.69 children per woman) compared to France (1.85), the United Kingdom (1.75) and the United States (1.78). From this brief statistical analysis, it is clear that, although convenient, the concept of world population covers an extraordinary diversity of demographic situations. For this reason, two typologies will be used in the following chapters when providing indicators of the relationship between population and development: the continents, on the one hand, and, on the other, the countries classified according to their level of income (high, middle and low).

Table I.2. Annual growth rate per country in certain sub-regions (2015–2020 average)

Region and country	%	Region and country	%
Southern Africa	1.39	West Asia	1.64
Botswana	2.07	Armenia	0.26
Eswatini	0.99	Azerbaijan	1.05
Lesotho	0.79	Bahrain	4.31
Namibia	1.86	Cyprus	0.78
South Africa	1.37	Georgia	–0.18
Southern Asia	1.20	Iraq	2.46
Afghanistan	2.47	Israel	1.63
Bangladesh	1.05	Jordan	1.93
Bhutan	1.17	Kuwait	2.15
India	1.04	Lebanon	0.88
Iran	1.36	Oman	3.59
Maldives	3.45	Qatar	2.32
Nepal	1.51	Saudi Arabia	1.86
Pakistan	2.05	Palestine	2.38
Sri Lanka	0.48	Syria	–0.56
	Turkey	1.43
United Arab Emirates	1.31
Yemen	2.37

Figure I.2. Annual growth rate of countries in Southern Africa and Southern Asia (2015–2020 average)

(sources: Charbit (design); Opurez, IRD-Ceped (realization)). For a color version of this figure, see www.iste.co.uk/charbit/demographic.zip