How big is Africa really...

750 million... 800 million... 920 million... a billion? Who knows for sure what the true population of the African continent is? How can we know when accurate and timely census' are so few and far between? And if this is the case, how can we even hope to plan properly in response to these factors?

By the most accurate figures, Africa has around about 900 million people within. We are also told that the average population growth-rate is about 2.4-2.5%. This could very well be closer to 3-3.4% per annum. The combination of rapidly improving birth survival rates, reduced mortality, and stable birth rates, could soon move Africa onto the higher-end of this spectrum of population growth rates, mostly due to the impact of a number of 'key population centers'.

At such rates, Africa could be home to close to 1.3 billion people by 2020; that's the size of China in 2007, and almost 1 and a-half times the size of Africa's 2007 population figure. By 2040, the continent may be home to 2.2 billion people; close to the combined populations of the twin Asian giants of China and India in 2007. Thats a lot of people to provide for,

' especially when no-one is planning for them and the services & infrastructure they will require.'

How will our urban services cope? What about the rural areas? Agriculture? There must be multitudes of impacts on these and others, caused by such risea in population burdens.

Can we honestly say the continent is really planning correctly? Right now, it doesn't look that way...