A street market in Delhi, India, in 2014.
Credit: © Don Mammoser, Shutterstock

In late April 2023, India claimed the title of the world’s most populous country. Nearly 2.9 million more people live in India than China, which held the title since 1950. A densely populated country, about a sixth of the 8 billion person global population resides in India, the seventh largest country in size. There are around 1.4 billion people in India. As the population of India continues growing, many other countries face a stagnant population or even decreasing numbers. According to the United Nations, India’s population is expected to peak at 1.7 billion in 2064. The rapid growth brings challenges in education, infrastructure, and jobs.

While the birth rate, or children per woman, of many countries around the world keeps declining, India’s population keeps growing. In 1970, China and India had similar birth rates of 5.8 in China and 5.72 in India. India’s birth rate dropped from 6 in the 1960’s to 3.4 in 1992. India’s birth rate further dropped to 2 in 2021. Despite this fertility rate decrease, India continues to grow because the average family in the 1960’s had 6 children. Those children are now parents and grandparents. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke in 2019 about controlling India’s population growth by encouraging limiting the number of children in a family.

A country’s average fertility rate must be 2.1 to maintain a population. Decades of limiting families to one child in China halted the population growth. India also established measures to curb rapid population growth, but the decline in the birth rate was more gradual compared to China’s. China’s birth rate fell to 1.2 in 2022, the nation’s lowest ever, despite the end of one-child policies in 2016. Throughout the world, the COVID-19 pandemic coincided with lower birth rates.

Many populations are aging throughout the world. The median age of a country shows at what age half the population is older and half is younger. In 2022, India’s median age of 28.7 was almost a decade lower than China’s 38.4. According to the Census Bureau, the median age in the United States reached a record high of 38.9 years in 2022. Since the birth rate has declined, the median age will continue growing older. The populations of India and China over the age of 65 will double by 2050. As healthcare and other survival measures improve and the birth rates fall, the number of people over the age of 65 is increasing in many countries. Aging populations strain economies as older citizens retire from work and require medical care and other assistance.

With such rapid population growth, unemployment levels have risen. In 2021, India’s working-age population contained 900 million people. It is projected that number will hit 1 billion in several years. Many cannot find work and have to travel or move to find secure employment. While India’s fast-growing economy has become the fifth largest in the world, the wealth is not spread evenly across the country. Its gross domestic product (GDP), a measure of a healthy economy, is high. Dividing India’s high GDP by its large population reveals an extremely low per capita GDP. Due to its low per capita GDP, India is still considered a developing country and one of the poorest nations in the world.

The Indian government is incentivizing living in smaller towns as the larger cities deal with pollution and rising temperatures. By improving infrastructure and public transportation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi hopes to encourage migration to smaller towns. The population has outgrown India’s transportation systems. In June 2023, a train crash in Odisha killed more than 261 people. The trains were packed with people, with many standing for the entire trip. The trains were so crowded that it hindered rescue efforts.

Many experts believe improving education for women across India will solve many of its problems. World Bank data shows that only 19 percent of women in India participated in the workforce in 2021. By providing education for women after primary school, they can help lead India into the future. If more women receive an education and enter the workforce, the birth rate will decline further, improving the quality of life and strength of democracy in India.

A honey bee worker hovers over a flower.
Credit: © Shutterstock

Tomorrow, May 20th, is World Bee Day! This day, designated by the United Nations, celebrates bees and raises awareness of how important bees are to our daily life. Bees and other pollinators are endangered by human activities. Nearly 75 percent of all food crops depend on pollinators. They are necessary for food security and biodiversity throughout the Earth. World Bee Day is a cause to learn more about bees and support causes that protect bees.

Bees are insects that live in almost every part of the world except near the North and South poles. Bees are one of the most useful of all insects. They produce honey, which people use as food; and beeswax, which is used in such products as adhesives, candles, and cosmetics. There are about 20,000 species (kinds) of bees. Only the kinds known as honey bees make honey and wax in large enough amounts to be used by people.

Flowers provide food for bees. The bees collect tiny grains of pollen and a sweet liquid called nectar from the blossoms they visit. They make honey from the nectar, and use both honey and pollen as food. During their food-gathering flights, bees spread pollen from one flower to another, thus pollinating (fertilizing) the plants they visit. This enables the plants to reproduce. Numerous wild plants and such important food crops as fruits and vegetables depend on bees for fertilization.

The rusty patched bumble bee (Bombus affinis).
Credit: © Rich Hatfield, The Xerces Society

Both young and adult bees sometimes fall victim to such diseases as European foulbrood and American foulbrood. These diseases may turn the bees into a gummy, lifeless mass. They are caused by bacteria. Diseases caused by fungi, such as Nosema disease, are also a threat to bees.

Human activities also harm bees. Insecticides meant to kill other insects kill thousands of bees each year. Weed-killing sprays take away an important source of bee food by destroying weeds and their flowers.

Colony collapse disorder (CCD) is an unusual condition that destroys hundreds of thousands of honey bee colonies each year in the United States. When a colony is affected by CCD, most of the adult bees disappear from the hive. The colony still contains a queen, immature bees, and honey. Experts are not certain what causes CCD. Mites and agricultural pesticides may contribute to CCD. Pesticides are chemicals used to kill insects and other pests.

The Chihuly Garden and Glass Exhibit in Seattle, Washington
Credit: © Christian Heinz, Shutterstock

The United Nations named 2022 the international year of glass. Glass is one of the most useful materials in the world. Few manufactured substances add as much to modern living as does glass. Yet few products are made of such inexpensive raw materials. Glass is made chiefly from silica sand (silica, also called silicon dioxide), soda ash (sodium carbonate), and limestone (calcium carbonate).

Glass has countless uses. Food is preserved in glass jars. People drink from glass containers called glasses. Windows in homes, schools, and office buildings are glass. Motor vehicles have glass windshields and windows. People with vision problems wear eyeglasses. Glass optical fibers carry data all over the world at the speed of light over the Internet, the worldwide network of computers.

Besides being useful, glass is also ornamental. Ever since people learned how to make glass, they have used it as an art material. Glass can take many different forms. It can be spun finer than a spider web. Or it can be molded into a disk for a telescope lens or mirror weighing many tons. Glass can be stronger than steel, or more fragile than paper. Most glass is transparent, but glass can also be colored to any desired shade.

Glassmaking is a popular form of the decorative arts. Dale Chihuly is one of the leading glass artists in the United States. Some of Chihuly’s glass sculptures are shown in the background.
Credit: AP/Wide World

American artist Dale Chihuly is credited with bringing blown glass art back into fashion. Chihuly was born on Sept. 20, 1941, in Tacoma, Washington. He began glass blowing in 1965. Chihuly experimented with colors, layers, and organic forms. He quickly became the biggest name in glass blowing, teaching new artists how to challenge the norm of glass art. Much of Chihuly’s art is on display in public exhibitions. Glass baskets, bowls, chandeliers, orbs, and vases dominate Chihuly’s pieces.

One of Chihuly’s first public exhibitions was Chihuly over Venice, a project involving the installation of 15 chandeliers across Venice, Italy. His most notable works include DNA Tower (2003) in Indianapolis, Indiana, Citron Icicle Tower ( 2012) in Seattle, Washington, several displays at the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina, and a colorful sculpture on the ceiling of the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Syrian refugees numbering in the millions fled civil war in their country in the early 2000′s. Many were housed in refugee camps like this camp in Sanliurfa, Turkey.
Credit: © Orlok/Shutterstock

Today, June 20, is World Refugee Day. The United Nations designated the day to honor refugees from around the world. A refugee is a person forced to flee from his or her country and find safety elsewhere. Many refugees seek to escape persecution based on religion, nationality, membership in a social group, or political beliefs. Some flee from war, famine, or other dangers. Many refugees give up everything—home, possessions, and family and friends—to pursue an uncertain future in a foreign land.

The term refugee comes from the French word refugie, which was used to describe Protestant Huguenots who fled France in 1685 because of Roman Catholic persecution. The term displaced person, or DP, is sometimes used interchangeably with refugee.

The flow of refugees from one country to another can present major international challenges. Countries that receive refugees—often called host countries—may have difficulty providing shelter, food, sanitation, and medical treatment for large numbers of people in need. Since 1951, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has helped millions of refugees throughout the world. The UNHCR estimates there were nearly 89.3 million refugees, internally displaced people, and asylum seekers at the end of 2021. This number has increased in 2022 as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine as well as the ongoing crises in Afghanistan, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, Myanmar, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, and Syria. The Rohingya are a people of Myanmar who are not recognized as legal residents and are forced to flee the country for safety and rights.

Rohingya Muslim refugees from Myanmar await rescue after being stranded off the coast of Indonesia. The government of Myanmar limited the rights of its Rohingya population in the 2010′s, leading an increasing number to attempt to flee the country. Myanmar’s government considered them illegal immigrants, although many Rohingya families had lived in the country for decades.
Credit: AP Photo

Under international law, governments in host countries must respect the basic human rights of refugees. Refugees, in turn, are expected to respect the laws and regulations of host countries. The shelter and protection that host countries provide to refugees is called asylum. In host countries, refugees generally have freedom of movement, freedom of religion, and the ability to pursue education and work. However, some refugees have no choice but to stay in crowded refugee camps. Refoulement—that is, the forcible return of refugees to countries where they face persecution—is a violation of international law.

Refugees often face many obstacles and hardships on their journeys. Salva Dut escaped from South Sudan on foot and faced many years in refugee camps before being welcomed in the United States. He works to bring clean water to his home country. Many refugees try to help the community they left in order to make the lives of others safer and healthier.

Many communities plan activities and events on World Refugee Day to support refugees and welcome them. Look up if your community is hosting an event or read about how you can help refugees in your neighborhood.

March 4, 2019

Yesterday, March 3, was World Wildlife Day, an international celebration of the Earth’s flora and fauna sponsored by the United Nations (UN). This year’s theme, “Life Below Water: For People and Planet,” singled out the crucial ecosystems and marine life of the world’s oceans. Life on Earth depends on the conservation and sustainable use of the oceans.

In 2019, the theme of World Wildlife Day is “Life Below Water: For People and Planet.” Credit: © World Wildlife Day

The first UN World Wildlife Day was celebrated on March 3, 2013, the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in 1973. The treaty—which went into effect in 1975—aims to control trade in wild animals and plants, their parts, and products derived from them. Over 170 countries around the world have joined the treaty. CITES forbids commercial international trade in certain endangered species, and it regulates trade in other species that might otherwise become endangered. Nevertheless, international wildlife trade continues to put many species at risk.

This year’s World Wildlife Day theme drew particular attention to the diverse animal and plant species that inhabit the world’s oceans. It also highlighted the importance of the oceans themselves, which—aside from providing energy, food, livelihoods, medicines, natural resources, recreation, sediments, and transportation—also absorb about 30 percent of the carbon dioxide produced by humans, buffering the impacts of global warming.

Unfortunately, many ocean waters are polluted, and plastic marine debris in particular is poisoning the world’s waters and killing marine wildlife. Overfishing and other forms of exploitation are also reducing marine wildlife populations, as are the losses of coastal habitats and the effects of climate change. The goal of “Life Below Water: For People and Planet” was to raise awareness of the importance of marine life and to instruct people on responsible and sustainable behavior that can limit the many perils facing the world’s oceans.

Last Friday, November 30, George Herbert Walker Bush, the 41st president of the United States, died in Houston at the age of 94. He served one term as president, from 1989 to 1993. He and his son George W. Bush, who became president in 2001, were the second father and son to serve as president. The only other father and son who both became president were John Adams and John Quincy Adams, who held office from 1797 to 1801 and from 1825 to 1829, respectively.

George H. W. Bush, 41st president of the United States, served from 1989 to 1993.
Credit: White House

As president, George H. W. Bush led the nation during the Persian Gulf War of 1991, in which the United States and its allies defeated Iraq, whose forces had invaded Kuwait. He also signed important arms-control agreements with the Soviet Union and, after it broke apart in 1991, with Russia and other former Soviet republics. Prior to his election as president, Bush had been a successful oil company executive and had served a long career in government service.

Bush was born on June 12, 1924, in Milton, Massachusetts. Bush served as a U.S. Navy pilot during World War II (1939-1945). On Sept. 2, 1944, Bush’s plane was shot down during an attack on a Japanese-held island. Before parachuting from his plane, Bush scored damaging hits on his target, a radio station. Bush was rescued from the ocean, but his two crew members did not survive. Bush received the Distinguished Flying Cross for his heroism in the incident. He returned to flying after being shot down.

George H. W. Bush and Barbara Bush.
Credit: Joyce N. Boghosian, White House Photo Office

On Jan. 6, 1945, Bush and Barbara Pierce were married. They were to become the longest-wedded couple in the history of the U.S. presidency, celebrating their 73rd wedding anniversary in January 2018. The couple had six children—George; Robin, who died of leukemia; John, called Jeb; Neil; Marvin; and Dorothy. Their son George was governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000 before serving as U.S. president from 2001 to 2009. Jeb Bush was governor of Florida from 1999 to 2007.

In 1945, Bush graduated from Yale University with a bachelor’s degree in economics. He then worked in the oil industry, becoming president of the Zapata Off-Shore Oil Company in 1954. Bush’s career as an independent oilman made him wealthy.

Bush became interested in politics in the late 1950’s. A Republican, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1966 and was reelected in 1968. In 1970, President Richard M. Nixon  appointed Bush U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (UN). He served until 1973. He was the U.S. envoy to Communist China in 1974 and 1975 and head of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)  in 1976 and 1977.

In 1980, Ronald Reagan, the Republican Party candidate for president of the United States, chose Bush as his running mate. Reagan and Bush defeated their Democratic opponents, President Jimmy Carter and Vice President Walter Mondale. In the 1984 presidential election, Reagan and Bush won a landslide victory over their Democratic opponents, former Vice President Walter Mondale and Representative Geraldine Ferraro.

Bush won the Republican presidential nomination in 1988. He chose as his running mate Senator Dan Quayle of Indiana. In his acceptance speech at the Republican convention in August, Bush called on the United States to become a “kinder, gentler nation.” In November, Bush and Quayle defeated their Democratic opponents, Governor Mike Dukakis and Senator Lloyd Bentsen.

Bush and Quayle ran for reelection in 1992 but lost to their Democratic opponents, Governor Bill Clinton and Senator Al Gore.

After leaving the White House, Bush became active with charitable organizations and helped raise several million dollars for various causes. In 2005, President George W. Bush appointed his father and former President Bill Clinton to lead relief efforts for victims of natural disasters in the United States and other parts of the world.

In his later years, George H. W. Bush often used a wheelchair. Even so, in 2014 he celebrated his 90th birthday by skydiving!

December 7, 2017

On Nov. 22, 2017, the United Nations (UN) International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia convicted former Bosnian Serb army leader Ratko Mladić of genocide and other crimes committed during the Bosnian War (1992-1995). The focal point of Mladić’s trial was the 1995 Srebrenica Massacre of thousands of Bosniaks (sometimes called Bosnian Muslims) by Bosnian Serb forces. Mladić was sentenced to life in prison.

Supporters of Ratko Mladić wave flags and a banner with his likeness during a rally in Belgrade, Serbia, where many consider him a hero. Mladić was sentenced to life in prison for genocide and other war crimes on Nov. 22, 2017. Credit: © Darko Vojinovic, AP Photo

The Bosnian War was a conflict between ethnic groups mainly in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Through most of the 1900’s, Bosnia-Herzegovina (often simply called Bosnia) had been part of Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia began to break into smaller countries in the early 1990’s, and Bosnia became independent in March 1992. Following independence, Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian forces fought for control of the new country. The war, which often saw violence inflicted upon opposing civilian populations, ended in December 1995.

In July 1995, Serb troops captured the disputed city of Srebrenica. A group of about 15,000 Bosniaks attempted to flee the area, but the Serbs captured most of them. The Serbs claimed that the Bosniak civilians under their control would be transferred to safe areas. The Serbs sent the Bosniak women and children away on buses and trucks. But most of the Bosniak men were executed.

In 2015, Bosniak women weep over the remains of men killed in the 1995 Srebrenica Massacre during the Bosnian War (1992-1995). Many years after the massacre, bodies were exhumed from mass graves for identification. Credit: © Amel Emric, AP Photo

Investigators later found evidence that the Serbs killed over 7,000 Bosniaks at Srebrenica. The UN convicted several Bosnian Serb military leaders for their roles in the massacre. The UN also charged Mladić, then head of the Bosnian Serb army, and Radovan Karadžić, then leader of the Bosnian Serbs, with war crimes. Karadžić was captured in 2008. His trial began in 2009 at a UN criminal court in The Hague, the Netherlands. Mladić was arrested in 2011. His trial began in 2012. In 2016, Karadžić was found guilty of genocide and other war crimes and sentenced to 40 years in prison.

In 2017, a Serbian court dealt with the issue for the first time as eight former Bosnian Serb police officers accused of participating in the massacre went on trial in Belgrade. On November 22, the UN convicted Mladić on two charges of genocide, five charges of crimes against humanity, and four counts of war crimes. A week later, on November 29, Slobodan Praljak, a Bosnian Croat military commander during the Bosnian War, died after drinking poison in a UN courtroom upon the confirmation of his 20-year prison sentence for war crimes.

February 21, 2017

Yesterday, February 20, the United Nations (UN) declared a famine in parts of South Sudan, a nation in eastern Africa. Famine is a prolonged food shortage that causes widespread hunger and death. The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) said that war and a collapsing economy have left 100,000 people facing starvation in South Sudan, and a further 1 million people are on the brink of famine. The WFP called for urgent and immediate humanitarian aid to slow or reverse “an escalating catastrophe.” Nearly 5 million people—more than 40 percent of South Sudan’s population—are in need of agriculture, food, and nutrition assistance.

Displaced people prepare food provided by humanitarian aid in a temporary camp near Juba, the capital of South Sudan. Credit: © Vlad Karavaev, Shutterstock

South Sudan broke away from the rest of Sudan to form the Republic of South Sudan in 2011. In late 2013, however, disagreements between ethnic groups led to civil war in the new nation. Fighting killed thousands of people until the warring sides signed a peace agreement in August 2015. Sporadic fighting resumed in July 2016, however, forcing many people from their homes and disrupting the nation’s agriculture, economy, and transportation. Crops have been ruined or left unharvested, and livestock populations have declined rapidly. Many people cannot afford the nation’s ever-rising food prices, and others are unable to reach camps that have food, water, and medical supplies.

Relief operations have been underway across South Sudan since early 2014. Aid programs have stemmed the severity of the food crisis in some areas, but they could not prevent famine in the nation’s northern Unity state, scene of the worst of the fighting. Famine struck the same area during an earlier civil conflict in 1998.

Throughout history, famine has struck at least one area of the world every few years. The famine in South Sudan is the first to be declared since 2011 when some 250,000 people died of hunger in nearby Somalia. Famine is again threatening areas of Somalia this year, and parts of Nigeria and Yemen are also currently at risk. The UN declares a famine when at least 20 percent of households face extreme food shortages, 30 percent of people are suffering from acute malnutrition, and the daily death rate from hunger exceeds 2 in every 10,000 people.

January 3, 2017

On January 1, Portuguese politician and diplomat António Guterres officially became the ninth secretary-general of the United Nations (UN). Guterres replaced Ban Ki-moon, who served two five-year terms from 2007 through 2016. The UN General Assembly elected Guterres in October 2016, and he took the oath of office as secretary-general in December. He previously served as prime minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002 and as the UN’s High Commissioner for Refugees from 2005 to 2015. Guterres is the first former head of state to lead the United Nations.

António Guterres became secretary-general of the United Nations on Jan. 1, 2017. Credit: Eric Bridiers, United States Mission Geneva (licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0)

As secretary-general, Guterres must steer the United Nations through major challenges such as civil wars and unrest, particularly in parts of the Middle East, international refugee crises, and the ongoing global problems of terrorism, climate change, and gender inequality.

António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres was born on April 30, 1949, in Lisbon, Portugal. In 1971, he graduated with a degree in electrical engineering from the Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), an elite engineering school. The institute is now part of the University of Lisbon. In addition to speaking Portuguese, Guterres is fluent in English, French, and Spanish.

Guterres launched his political career in 1974, when he joined the Socialist Party. He was elected to Portugal’s Assembly of the Republic (parliament) in 1976 in the country’s first democratic elections after more than 50 years of dictatorial rule. He served in parliament until 1983 and again from 1985 to 1995. In 1991, Guterres founded the Portuguese Refugee Council. He became the leader of the Socialist Party in 1992 and was elected prime minister in 1995, serving two terms.

July 25, 2014

Palestinian protests planned as a “day of rage” in the West Bank erupted this morning in violence, with at least five Palestinians killed by Israeli security guards. Palestinians took to the streets, chanting “with our soul and blood, we will redeem Gaza,” to demonstrate their anger at the deaths of more than 800 Palestinians since the latest Israeli-Hamas conflict began on July 8. Sporadic disturbances also broke out in East Jerusalem following prayers on this the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Following an international outcry over yesterday’s missile strike on a United Nations (UN) school in Gaza, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has increased efforts to broker a cease-fire.

The strike on the UN school, which was being used as a displaced persons shelter in northern Gaza, left 16 people dead and dozens more injured. “Many have been killed–including women and children, as well as UN staff,” declared UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in a statement issued to the media. It is yet unclear who was behind the strike. A spokesperson for Hamas condemned it as “Israeli brutal aggression that targeted” Palestinians left homeless by Israeli strikes. The Israeli military suggested that the hit was self-inflicted, noting that rockets from Gaza sometimes fall and explode within Gaza.

A Hamas supporter waves Islamic flags on the roof of the Palestinian Parliament building in the West Bank town of Ramallah. Today in the West Bank, thousands of Palestinians protested Israel's strikes on Gaza. (AP/Wide World)

Simmering tensions among Palestinians in the West Bank have raised the specter of a third intifada, or Palestinian uprising. Middle East experts note, however, that such uprisings, by their nature, are not planned. “The intifada does not start by a decision and end by a decision,” stated Othman Abu Gharbiya, a member of the Palestinian Authority’s Fatah central committee. Nevertheless, he noted, “no doubt we are passing through a dangerous time.”

The current Israeli-Hamas hostilities began when a Palestinian boy was murdered on July 2 in an apparent reprisal for the murder of three Israeli teenage boys, whose bodies were found in the West Bank on June 30. Besides the Palestinian death toll, 33 Israelis–30 soldiers and 3 civilians, have been killed so far in the conflict.

Additional World Book article:

• Israel 1987 (a Back in Time article)
• Israel 2000 (a Back in Time article)
• Middle East 2007 (a Back in Time article)