Recent Population Trends in the New World: An Over-all View

Abstract

The Western Hemisphere has been leading the world in population growth. Although the United States-Canadian rate of increase is high in com parison to most other industrial nations, it is the Latin American countries that are contributing most to the over-all increase. These countries as a whole ex ceed the growth rate in any other major area of the world. Whereas industrial northern America has experienced a postwar upsurge in population due to in creased fertility, the tremendous gains in Latin America have been made because of sharply declining mortality. The consequences of the amazing rate of popu lation growth depend in part upon whether economic development itself or ex ternal factors have brought down the death rate.