A Service of The Arrow           Thursday November 4, 1999 7:52 PM

By: Frank Janes

ARROW STAFF

The world population reached six billion inhabitants earlier this month—roughly double the population of the world in the 1960s, and possibly quadruple what it was at the turn of the century. Although family size and fertility rates worldwide have been on the decline, experts say the world population will continue to increase enormously.

“Half of the population is just entering reproductive years,” says MSU sociology professor Fred Reed, “so in the future there will be a lot more babies.”

It could have been worse. If various institutions had not begun promoting family planning and contraception, experts say the population could have been as high as seven or eight billion.

The question is, does this trend affect the people of Montana?

“In terms of direct effect, there is none at all,” says Reed, “indirectly as population grows more resources will be used which will eventually have an effect globally.”

In fact, for the last few decades Montana has stayed fairly stable where population is concerned. Increases in the west have been tempered with losses in the east.

The hot spots of this population boom are mostly underdeveloped nations where there is less use of birth control. The increases these last few decades have not been a result of more babies being born, however.

“People are living longer,” says Reed, “and we are doing a better job of caring for babies so infant mortality around the world is decreasing.”

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