Philologos
Bible Prophecy Research
Title: The Number Six
Submitted by: research-bpr@philologos.org
Date: July 19, 1998
URL: http://philologos.org/bpr/files/n006.htm
The Number Six
WORLD POPULATION TO GROW TO SIX BILLION
On the eve of World Population Day, the United Nations Population Fund said last Friday that the number of people on earth at this time next year will be 6 billion.
UPI Feature Stories
Mon, 13 Jul 1998
[Are there any mathematicians out there who can approximate when the 666 number would be reached? Around the beginning of 2001?--Moza]
06:10 PM ET 05/26/99
6 Billionth Person Expected in Oct.
By DAVID BRISCOE
WASHINGTON (AP) In less than five months, Oct. 12 is the best guess, a child's birth will push the world's population to 6 billion.
The new benchmark comes 12 years after the last billion. It took 13 years for the billion before that. The United Nations is looking for slower growth over the next century, but some demographers now think the 7 billion mark could come even more quickly.
Median U.N. projections say it will take 14 years to add another billion people. Population projections, however, have become more complex than ever, with birth and death rates varying widely from region to region, the impact of AIDS, advances in population programs and longer life expectancies.
The United Nations will mark the birth of the 6 billionth child on Oct. 12.
There are no plans to pinpoint who the child will be or where he or she will be born, but chances are the 6 billionth world citizen will be born a boy in the Third World.
About 105 males are born for every 100 females worldwide. Other factors weigh in later on in determining the population, including higher infant death rates among males and longer life expectancy for females. The latest data shows about 50.4 percent of the world's population is male, but in the industrialized world, 51.6 percent of the population is female. In the United States, women outnumber men 51-49.
Worldwide, population now is increasing at 1.4 percent a year. Carl Haub of the Population Reference Bureau said Wednesday that just a slight change in fertility or mortality now could make a huge difference in world population figures over the next century.
``If we miss just a little bit on the projections, we could end up with 7 billion by the fastest rate ever,'' Haub said. The median projection that it will take longer to reach the next billion is based on the idea that fertility rates worldwide will drop to two children per woman. The current rate is 2.9.
For the long haul, though, demographers don't expect percentage population increases to spiral ever upward.
``We've just gone through a demographic century that I don't think will ever be equaled,'' said Haub at a news conference releasing the independent, non-advocacy research group's 1999 World Population Data Sheet. The sheet notes that world population in the 20th century increased by 4.4 billion, more than 300 percent growth.
Haub said population increases in the next century could accelerate in some countries, but the worldwide pattern will vary, with growth occurring almost exclusively in less developed countries. Industrialized nations, which doubled their population in the 20th century, will grow slowly or not at all, he said.
Europe, in fact, is likely to lose population over the next 100 years.
The data sheet predicts that more than half the world's population growth in the next half century will occur in Asia, with one-third in Africa. It includes figures for each country on population, fertility, mortality, age, life expectancy, contraceptive use and income, with a separate chart on population density.
(Infobeat News, http://www.infobeat.com)
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This came in answer to my question of when the 666 number would be reached in regards to world population:
"It looks like the population growth is roughly linear since this billion took 12 years, the previous took 13 year and the next will be 14 years. We have been used to logarithmic rates of increase. If it has leveled off as this article says, then to add 660,000,000 (total 6,660,000,000) would be 66/100X12 years or 8 years or Oct. 2007."
CENSUS BUREAU ESTIMATES 6 BILLIONTH PERSON
The US Census Bureau estimated that the planet's six billionth person was born
sometime last weekend. Their PopClock of current estimated world population is online at http://www.census.gov/main/www/popclock.html
(via Matt Rosenberg, Geography News, http://geography.about.com)
Seven minus one, i.e., man's coming short of perfection; the human number; the number of MAN as destitute of God, without God, without Christ...man was created on the sixth day, and thus he has the number six impressed upon him. Moreover, six days were appointed to him for his labour; while one day is associated in sovereignty with the Lord God, as His rest.
Six, therefore, is the number of labour also, of man's labour as apart and distinct from God's rest. True, it marks the completion of Creation as God's work, and therefore the number is significant of secular completeness.
The serpent also was created on the sixth day.
Number in Scripture
E. W. Bullinger