Full profiles provide an instant guide to history, politics and economic background of countries and territories, and background on key institutions. They also include audio or video clips from BBC archives.

For millions of years, our distant ancestors led a precarious existence as scavengers, hunters, and gatherers, and there were fewer than 10 million human beings on Earth at any one time. But over the last two centuries, the world's population has skyrocket

The most pressing economic challenges facing the Tibetan areas of western China relate to the marginalization of the majority of Tibetans from rapid state-led growth. The urban-rural divide plays an important role in this polarized dynamic but alone only p

Optimum Human Population Size By Gretchen C. Daily, Anne H. Ehrlich, and Paul R. Ehrlich A 1993 article elaborating on how to define and determine what constitutes an optimum human population size. Quoted from the article: "In general, we would choose a po

Arithmetic, Population and Energy by Dr. Albert Bartlett The retired Professor of Physics from the University of Colorado in Boulder examines the arithmetic of steady growth, such as 5% per year, the doubling time for such growth, and the large numbers one

Too Many People by Tom Flynn "In my opinion, just slowing the pace of population growth is not enough. If we don't reduce our numbers purposely, catastrophe may do it for us. If we don't learn how to shrink our polities elegantly, it will occur inelegantly

This is an excellent article on overpopulation at Wikipedia. Read it >>

... be 40. Many experts argue that these demographic disparities could have severe global

This is a list of countries ordered according to population. The list includes and ranks sovereign states and self-governing dependent territories. Figures are based on the most recent estimate or projection by the national census authority where available

... ) through 2050. "There are larger demographic differences among the world's ... 2006 World Population Data Sheet. "The demographic, health, and economic contrasts among