'7th billion citizen' is just a symbolic number

The fact that the world welcomes the 7th billion baby today is just a symbolic act, because the current world population may be 56 million lower or higher than this huge number.

>>> The world population is about to reach 7 billion people

National Geographic said, in theory, predicting the population of a country is quite simple work. You just take the population of each country in the last census minus the number of people who die and then add the number of people you think are about to be born. Then you subtract the number of people from the country plus the number of immigrants.

But in fact, the job of predicting the population is much more complicated. That is the judgment of Richard Kollodge, senior editor of reports of the world's population situation published by the United Nations.

Girl Danica May Camacho, born in the Philippines last night,
is considered the 7 billion person on earth. (Photo: AFP)

'Some governments do not build an effective census system, or in many cases census statistics are not complete , ' Kollodge said.

In some cases the United Nations must adjust data according to trends that a country does not take into account when they are census.

'We know a large number of girls disappear during the census, because when you count the number of female students in Chinese schools, you will realize that the number is much larger than that. The number of girls born six years ago according to government statistics , "said John Bongaarts, vice president of Population Council in the US.

United Nations experts are always trying to find ways to handle these complex factors before 'closing' the final number.

Gerhard Heilig, the head of the United Nations ' global population statistics and estimation team, uses the word 'nonsense' to describe someone trying to determine when the 7th billion baby was born. The United Nations stressed that their prediction error was 1-2%. That means the world population today may be 56 million or less than the 7 billion figure, the BBC said.

'The global population may reach 7 billion before or after 6 months from October 31 , ' he said.

A UN website confirms that even the best population statistics are inevitable. Even so, the United Nations acknowledged the time when the world population reached 7 billion people was only symbolic.'The reason is that there is no system capable of immediate monitoring of all births and deaths,' explains Daniel Goodkind, a population expert at the US Population Department.

Jack Goldstone, a population policy expert at George Mason University in the US, said that instead of choosing a specific date, the UN could offer a longer period of time. But that is not a wise way of predicting the population.

'By offering a specific date and a rounded figure, the United Nations has made the world public pay more attention to population issues. I have noticed that the level of public opinion is reaching the highest level in many years , 'Goldstone said.

Bongaarts argues that the time of world population reaches 7 billion is not the most important issue.

'The important message is that the earth's population is too big and we should pay attention to its impact , ' he said.