New study shows millions of Caribbean nationals live on less than US$2 per day
Published on Tuesday, August 18, 2009 Email To Friend Print Version
GEORGETOWN, Guyana -- The Population Reference Bureau's 2009 World Population Data Sheet released recently shows a significant number of nationals in five Caribbean countries live on less than US$2 a day.
The report shows Dominican Republic, Haiti, St Lucia, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, and Suriname are the regional countries where nationals live on that small amount.
The study shows 72 per cent of the Haitian population has been living on the tiny dollar amount as of 2005, the latest data available to the Bureau.
St Lucia had 41 percent of its nationals living on this amount, followed by Suriname, where 27 percent of the people live on less than US$2 daily.
Guyana was fourth with 17 percent, while the Dominican Republic registered 15 percent and the oil-rich Trinidad and Tobago 14 per cent identified.
The Bureau report has also indicated that 97 per cent of global population growth over the next 40 years will occur in the Caribbean, Latin America, Asia and Africa.
Currently, the world population stands at 6.8 billion, up about by 83 million from last year's figure. The Caribbean accounts for over 41 million people.
In 2009, world population stood at 6.8 billion, up about 83 million from 2008. and is likely to reach 7 billion in the latter half of 2011, with the bulk of growth in the world’s poorest nations.
The Washington-based Bureau estimates that the less developed countries of Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean are projected to increase by just less than 50 percent in the 41 years between now and 2050, and the poorest of these are projected to double in Population size over that period.
“But this scenario assumes that fertility in less developed countries will decline smoothly to the low levels observed in today’s more developed countries: about 1.8 children per woman. For fertility to fall to those low levels, many factors are key, including significant increases in the use of family planning in many less developed countries” it says .
By 2050, the number of youth will have risen from just under a half billion in 1950 to 1.2 billion. At that point, about nine in 10 youths will be in developing countries.
According to the document, this very large group will arrive at working age with a right to expect gainful employment, adequate health care, and the ability to raise a family with an appropriate living standard if they so choose, “Before those things can come about, they must have had access to sufficient education and training so that they can take part in building their country’s society and economy.
Most likely, tomorrow’s youth will have moved to cities in larger numbers as opportunities in the rural areas diminish”.
Reads : 1235
