according to a recent report from the united nations, the world population continues to grow. it is over 5 billion now. it could reach 8.4 billion in the year 2025.

but during the past 10 years or so, a large and rapid drop in the world's birth rate has taken place.families generally are smaller now than they were a few years ago. it is happening in both developing and developed countries.

china is such a country that has already cut its rate of population growth by about one half since ! 970. each chinese family has no more than one child. and the hope is to reach a zero population growth rate by 2010.

several countries in europe already have a negative growth rate. experts say that these countries could face a serious shortage of workers in the future. and the persons who are working could face much higher taxes to help support the growing number of retirees.

世界人口

根據(jù)聯(lián)合國最近的報(bào)告：世界人口正持續(xù)增長。 現(xiàn)已超過50億。到2025年，這個(gè)數(shù)字會(huì)達(dá)到84之多，

但是在過去的大約10年中，世界范圍的出生率有了大量、迅速的下降。與幾年前相比，家庭成員越來越少，，發(fā)達(dá)國家和發(fā)展中國家都是如此。

中國正是一個(gè)這樣的國家，197()年至今。人口的增長率已經(jīng)大約減少為過去的二分之一。每個(gè)中國家庭只有一個(gè)孩子。到2010年的時(shí)候，有希望達(dá)到人口增長率為零

很多歐洲國家已經(jīng)出現(xiàn)人口負(fù)增長。 專家預(yù)測，這些國家將會(huì)在未來遭遇嚴(yán)重的勞動(dòng)力不足。 而工作的人們將面臨比現(xiàn)在高得多的稅收以負(fù)擔(dān)日益增長的退休人口。

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