Pop Quiz
Quiz
1. What was the world population in mid-2021?
a) 900 million b) 3.8 billion c) 7.8 billion d) 9.2 billion e) 13.1 billion
2. By approximately how many people does the world grow each year?
a) 10 million b) 26 million c) 41 million d) 78 million e) 168 million
3. Which world region has the most people?
a) Africa b) Asia c) Europe d) North America e) South America
4. Which world region is experiencing the fastest population growth?
a) Africa b) Asia c) Europe d) North America e) South America
5. True or False: There is a population explosion in the world today.
6. Which has NOT been a major cause of the global population growth over the past two centuries?
a) an increase in birth rates b) modern preventive medicine c) improved sanitation
d) lower infant mortality e) longer life expectancy
7. Worldwide, what percentage of pregnancies are unintended?
a) 18% b) 28% c) 38% d) 48%
8. A megacity has a population of over 10 million people. How many megacities were there in the
world in mid-2021?
a) 15 b) 21 c) 29 d) 34 e) 52
9. What was the population of the United States in mid-2021?
a) 60 million b) 81 million c) 127 million d) 333 million e) 495 million
10. True or False: Now that the U.S. fertility rate (1.6 children per woman in 2021) is well below
replacement level, all U.S. population growth is due to immigration.
11. The United States, which makes up about 4 percent of the world’s population, consumes
approximately how much of the world’s energy?
a) 5% b) 11% c) 17% d) 34% e) 39%
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Pop Quiz | Answers
1. What was the world population in mid-2021? c) 7.8 billion 7. Worldwide, what percentage of pregnancies are unintended?
d) 48%
Note that world population figures are best estimates
demographers can make, but are not precise counts. According to research compiled by the Guttmacher Institute and
several UN agencies, nearly half of all pregnancies are unintended.
2. By approximately how many people does the world grow each This is fairly consistent across income groups around the world.
year? d) 78 million Just over half of married women of childbearing age (15-49) report
using modern methods of family planning.1
The current population growth rate is about 1 percent, a decrease
from a high of 2.2 percent in the early 1960s. To calculate the 8. A megacity has a population of over 10 million people. How many
world’s growth rate, subtract the death rate (currently 8 per megacities were there in the world in mid-2021? c) 34
1,000) from the birth rate (currently 18 per 1,000) and divide
the result by 10. To calculate how many people are added to the Megacities are a recent phenomenon. In the mid-20th century,
world population each year, multiply the total world population by there were only two: New York City and Tokyo. Today, there are
the growth rate, also called the natural rate of increase. 34, with an expected 43 megacities by 2030. All major global
regions except Oceania contain megacities. Most of the cities that
3. Which world region has the most people? b) Asia have reached the 10 million marker in recent years are located in
Asia and Africa.
Asia is home to 60 percent of the world’s population and includes
the two most populous countries, China and India (each with 9. What was the population of the United States in mid-2021?
approximately 1.4 billion people). d) 333 million
4. Which world region is experiencing the fastest population 10. True or False: Now that the U.S. fertility rate is well below
growth? a) Africa replacement level (1.6 children per woman in 2021), all U.S.
population growth is due to immigration. False
Africa’s population is currently growing at 2.5 percent each year.
The continent’s population is expected to double in about 35 An average of 1.6 children per family is below the replacement
years. Most of this growth is occurring in the countries of sub- level fertility rate (2.1). However, growth will not stop until births
Saharan Africa. and deaths are equal. Currently, there are more births than deaths,
about 900,000 more in 2020. The growth due to immigration
5. True or False: There is a population explosion in the world today. is difficult to track due to a lack of reliable numbers on
You decide undocumented immigrants. According to the U.S. Census Bureau,
net international migration accounted for roughly 30 percent of
It took all of human time on Earth (about 3 million years) for U.S. population growth in the decade 2010–2019.
the population to reach 1 billion in 1804. Global population
reached 2 billion in 1927 (123 years later); 3 billion in 1960 (33 11. The United States, which makes up about 4 percent of the
years); 4 billion in 1974 (14 years); 5 billion in 1987 (13 years); 6 world’s population, consumes approximately how much of the
billion in 1999 (12 years); and 7 billion in 2011 (13 years). World world’s energy? c) 17%
population is expected to reach 8 billion in 2023 (12 years later).
The population had been growing ever faster through the 19th and The U.S. places disproportionately greater demands on world
much of the 20th centuries, but the growth rate is now decreasing. resources, even though its share of future global population
Demographers at the UN project continued growth (albeit slower) growth is minute. The average person in the U.S. consumes 4
through this century before stabilizing at 10-11 billion people. times more energy than the average global citizen, 3 times more
than the average person in China, and 11 times more than the
6. Which has NOT been a major cause of the global population average person in India. It could easily be argued that a resident
growth over the past two centuries? a) Increase in birth rate of the U.S. has a much greater impact on the quality of the global
environment than a person living in any other part of the world.
A decrease in death rates, rather than an increase in birth rates,
has been the main cause of rapid population growth. Improved
nutrition, sanitation, and advances in medicine and agriculture
all contributed to this decline. Death rates in Western Europe Sources: Lancet Global Health, National Center for Health Statistics (CDC),
dropped during the Industrial Revolution (beginning in the Our World in Data, Pew Research Center, Population Reference Bureau,
1700s), and later in North America due to industrialization and UN Population Division, U.S. Census Bureau
urbanization. In the 20th century, Latin America, Africa, and Asia
saw dramatic drops in mortality. Since fertility remained at its 1
Bearak, J., et al., (2020, July 22). Unintended pregnancy and abortion
previous high level for some time after the decline in these areas, by income, region, and the legal status of abortion: estimates from a
rapid growth resulted. comprehensive model for 1990–2019, Lancet Global Health, DOI: https://
doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(20)30315-6
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