These other countries are either in severe poverty or their cities are becoming overcrowded. Although the U.S. is not in grave danger at this current time, when you look at the whole world, you will see a different picture. Eventually, the rest of the world's poverty will spread and have a drastic effect on us unless we act now. .
With the introduction of modern medicine and improved water and agriculture, the infant mortality rate and the overall death rate has fallen all over the world and will only decrease. Right now there are record numbers of women in their child bearing years which will cause areas such as India, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America to continue to grow at alarming rates. Five developing countries today are responsible for more than 50 percent of the world's increase in population: India, China, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Nigeria. China has the most with 1,270,000,000. Part of the problem in China is that according to Chinese beliefs, large families are a key part of the traditional Chinese culture. Therefore, this predicament calls for more than the government just telling the Chinese citizens to only have one child. Besides promoting public awareness and birth control, China instituted a one child policy in 1959, but has been vastly ignored, rendering it widely ineffective. They have also adopted a marriage law encouraging people to marry later in their lives so that the mothers have less child bearing years. .
Below is a chart of the top 10 most populous countries in the world. As you can see the top two outnumber the rest of the list by far which explains why the food and resource problems are much more serious at these places.
Top 10 Countries.
China 1,270,000,000 .
India 1,030,000,000 .
United States 281,421,906 .
Indonesia 224,784,210 .
Brazil 172,860,370 .
Russia 146,001,176 .
Pakistan 141,553,775 .
Bangladesh 129,194,224 .
Japan 126,549,976 .
Nigeria 123,337,822 .
Los Angeles Times March 29, 2001.