faint spinning globe - spikes show city population

AFP

LONDON — The world's population of seven billion is set to rise to at least 10 billion by 2100, but could top 15 billion if birth rates are just slightly higher than expected, the United Nations said on Wednesday.

The world is becoming a hungrier place - consuming more food, fuel and material resources - as its population bulges. But the increase in consumption is not even and not driven by the same factors.

BANGKOK, 14 October 2011 (IRIN) - By some measures, Bangladesh is modernizing rapidly - one in two residents now owns a cell phone. However, when it comes to basic sanitation, progress is clogged.

Michael Kanellos

The world’s most important invention—the technological breakthrough that has fundamentally changed family life for the better nearly everywhere—isn’t particularly extravagant. In fact, you probably have one.

What is it? The car? The computer? The cell phone? Not quite.

NASA

SEDAC, the Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center, is one of the Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs) in the Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Population Density of China by First-Level Administrative Regions