Global Population and Demographic Trends

As stated up front, this work is dedicated to defining the ABC’s of global society or globalization as a system of interconnected and interdependent structures and processes as they affect people and their communities everywhere. With that in mind, it makes sense to start our discussion with global population trends, as they have shaped and reshaped human societies over the millennia and are likely to do so throughout time. Details about these trends and variations are well known.1 Repeating them would simply be redundant. At the same time, no study focusing on the interdependence of various facets of globalization can ignore reflecting on the key population parameters and to point out some of their lesser appreciated dimensions. For example, it may not always be fully appreciated that the world population today constitutes a mutually inclusive continuous subsystem of a larger system with far-reaching implications for our planet in that any significant change in one geographic region sooner or later would reflect not only on populations but also on social, economic, and political dynamics in other regions as well. Population trends have always been major factors in triggering social change in communities and societies. Now they have acquired global dimensions with far-reaching implications for the planetary environment, resources, conflicts, cooperation, and national social and economic well-being.