The world population has reached 6.5 billion, a billion more than in 1993, but the increase will slow down and should stabilize in 2050 at an estimated 9 billion, the United Nations said Thursday. By next year, half the world's people will be living in urban areas with the trend expected to continue, the world body said. Today, 3.2 billion people live in cities, but the number was expected to increase to 5 billion by 2030, it said. The demographic estimates were made public in a report ahead of the annual conference in April of the 47-member Commission on Population and Development. The conference at U.N. headquarters in New York will discuss population size and growth, urbanization and city growth, ageing, fertility and contraception, mortality and international migration. Despite the projected population increase up to 2050, the United Nations said birth rates have fallen from 2 children per woman in the late 1960s to 1.2 children today. The U.N. Population Division, which prepared the report, said most developed countries have recorded birth rates at or below the replacement level. Developing countries, particularly African ones, still showed high fertility levels. Since 2000, there has been an annual global increase of 77 million people with India, China, Pakistan, Nigeria, the United States and Bangladesh accounting for most of the rise. ---SP 0035 Local Time 2135 GMT
