From the editor

Abstract

Early in November the number of people in the world exceeded 7 billion (a thousand million). In 1960 the population still counted three billion. The world population more than doubled in 41 years. Countries like China and Brazil decreased their population growth to respectively 1.6 and 1.9 children per woman. The former through legislation and the latter by means of television programmes. In Africa the birth rate per woman is still nearly six. In South Africa the total population in 1904 was just over 5 million people, which is approximately 20% more than the larger Cape Town’s current population. In 1950 it was still only 13 million people. Currently we have an estimated 50.5 million people in South Africa which does not include between 4.5 and 9 million illegal immigrants. The legal population of just over 50 million gives a growth rate of 1000% in 107 years.