NewsTracker Answers for week of June 06, 2022

Q: In 2021, Japan recorded its lowest number of births in more than a century, causing the country’s biggest natural population decline since data became available. Where is the Asian island nation of Japan?

Circle the area on this map

Q: Japan had 811,604 births and 1,439,809 deaths last year, a population drop of 628,205. That’s more people than the population of which U.S. state?

A. Alaska

B. Delaware

C. Rhode Island

D. Wyoming

D. With a population of 576,851, Wyoming has fewer people than any other state. The two smallest states by area, Rhode Island and Delaware, each have more people than Alaska, the largest state by area.

Q: Japan’s fertility rate — the average number of children a woman has in her lifetime — decreased for the sixth year in a row, to 1.3. Niger has the highest fertility rate with an average of 6.7 children per woman, while the worldwide average is 2.4, according to the World Bank. The U.S. fertility rate is ...

A. Less than 2

B. Between 2 and 3

C. Between 3 and 4

D. More than 4

A. The United States has an average of 1.6 children for each woman. While Japan’s population is declining at a rate 0.39 of a percent, the U.S. population is increasing at a rate of 0.69 of a percent, according to the CIA World Factbook. Both nations have a fertility rate less than a replacement rate of 2, but the United States has a greater immigration rate.

Q: Politicians and economists worry that declining birth rates mean there won’t be enough workers to support aging populations. With 30 percent of its people over 65 years old, Japan has the world’s second-oldest median age of 48.6 years. That means half the people are older than 48.6 years old and half are younger. Which country has the youngest median age?

A. Burundi

B. DR Congo

C. Niger

D. Somalia

C. Along with the world’s highest fertility rate, Niger has the youngest population with a median age of 14.8 years. It also is the fifth-poorest nation in the world. Burundi, Somalia and Democratic Republic of Congo are poorer than Niger, but all have young populations with median ages of 18.5 years or less. People of the world’s second-richest nation, Monaco, also are the oldest, with a median age of 55.4 years.

Q: According to scientists, it took modern humans — Homo sapiens — roughly 300,000 years to reach an estimated world population of 1 billion people in 1803. Since then, it has grown to more than 7.7 billion. Is the rate of world population growth now increasing or declining?

A. Increasing

B. Declining

B. The rate of worldwide population growth dropped from a high of 2.1 percent in 1968 to 1.08 percent in 2019, according to the United Nations. UN experts predict the population will grow to 10.9 billion by 2100 and then level off. The explosion in human population has coincided with an explosion of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which is rapidly warming the planet.