Bze’s population expected to hit two hundred fifty thousand

Today the world’s population hit six billion. Although the United Nations World Population Day was in June, today the six billionth baby was born. Here in Belize the experts believe our population will be somewhere between two hundred fifty and two hundred fifty five thousand by the next census in the year 2000. Sylvan Roberts the Head of the Central Statistical Office says Belize’s overall growth rate is high at two point seven percent per year and is determined by factors such as fertility, mortality and emigration and immigration. The data on emigration is difficult to collect with any precision, but it seems the number of people leaving Belize is balanced off by the numbers arriving so this has little impact on Belize’s overall growth. In the 90’s, as in the 80’s, it is the natural rate of increase — a combination of births and deaths — that is driving the population boom. It matches the overall growth rate at two point seven percent. The Mestizos are still the largest ethnic group continuing to produce the most children, averaging five per woman. Creoles are second, averaging four children per mother. Other trends will probably continue as well with the Belize District having the greatest concentration of people, twenty-nine percent, down one point from 1991, and Cayo and Orange Walk coming in second and third with twenty percent and sixteen percent of the overall population respectively. While the next census will be taken next year, the Population Unit in the Ministry of Human Development is already formulating a National Population and Development Policy based on projections up to the year 2015. It also relies on data collected in the 1998 Labour Force Survey, as well as raw data from a number of government departments and other sources. The unit is relatively new, and was established in June under the United Nations Population Fund.