Population prospects in East and Southeast Asia
High-risers form a residential area at Wong Tai Sin on the outskirts of Hong Kong, China, 10 January 2012. (Photo: AAP)

Authors: Adrian C. Hayes and Zhongwei Zhao, ANU

According to UN estimates, the world’s population reached 7 billion in late 2011.

It took all of human evolution until approximately the year 1800 to reach the first 1 billion — and now we have seen an extra billion added in a mere 12 years. Read more…

China’s rising sex ratio at birth
A young Chinese boy sits in his stroller surrounded by a group of adults at a park in Beijing. (Photo: AAP)

Authors: Zhongwei Zhao, ANU, and Wei Chen, People’s University of China

The gender imbalance in China is perhaps the most worrying demographic change that has been taking place in recent decades.

China’s sex ratio at birth (SRB), which measures the number of male live births per hundred female live births, was within the normal range of between 103 to 107 throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Read more…