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Get the facts about population issues in developing countries and how they affect children and their families.
• In 2006, the world's population was 6.55 billion people.
• Approximately 5.1 billion people live in the developing world. The developed world, which consists of about 57 countries with a combined population of about 1 billion, is less than one-sixth of the world's population.
• One in five people is an adolescent between 10 and 19 years of age; 85 percent of adolescents live in developing countries.
• The world population is growing by about 1.2 percent, or 76 million people, per year.
• Approximately 48.8 percent of the world's population lives in urbanized areas.
• One birth occurs every 8 seconds, while one death occurs every 11 seconds. The world population has a net gain of one person every 12 seconds.
• Every year, 55 percent of all births in the developing world (excluding China) go unregistered, meaning more than 50 million children begin life with no identity.
Sources: www.bread.org, www.who.int, www.populationaction.org, www.worldbank.org, www.census.gov, www.unicef.org