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On average, Americans die earlier than Canadians. An estimate based on comparing the number of actual US deaths with the number that would have obtained had Canadian age- and sex-specific death rates applied to the US population shows an excess number of US deaths in 1998 amounting approximately to 253,000. Excess US deaths were especially numerous among older women, middle-aged men, and nonwhites. Circulatory diseases were the major cause of excess deaths. Prevalences of two of the major risk factors for circulatory deaths--smoking and hypertension--were higher in Canada than in the US. But obesity was higher in the US, suggesting a likely important role that obesity plays in higher mortality in the US relative to Canada. Comparisons of the level, age pattern, and causes of US and Canadian mortality, however, raise more questions than currently available data can answer.

On average, Americans die earlier than Canadians. An estimate based on comparing the number of actual US deaths with the number that would have obtained had Canadian age- and sex-specific death rates applied to the US population shows an excess number of US deaths in 1998 amounting approximately to 253,000. Excess US deaths were especially numerous among older women, middle-aged men, and nonwhites. Circulatory diseases were the major cause of excess deaths. Prevalences of two of the major risk factors for circulatory deaths--smoking and hypertension--were higher in Canada than in the US. But obesity was higher in the US, suggesting a likely important role that obesity plays in higher mortality in the US relative to Canada. Comparisons of the level, age pattern, and causes of US and Canadian mortality, however, raise more questions than currently available data can answer.

This Population Bulletin updates a previous Bulletin from 2006, India's Population Reality: Reconciling Change and Tradition. India's population (currently at 1.3 billion) will exceed China's before 2025 to make India the world's most populous country. India's annual increase of about 19 million people contributes more to the annual world population growth of about 89 million than any other country. However, the most recent population data shows a country headed for replacement level fertility -- albeit, with notable regional differences in fertility trends. Since 1950, fertility in India has decreased by about half, from a total fertility rate (TFR or number of children per woman) of just under six children per woman to about 2.34 in 2013. During the 20th century, India made real progress against disease and hunger. The population of one-quarter billion in 1900 expanded to 1 billion people in 2000. Slowing population growth was a national priority from the nation's beginning and India can count many successes in that effort.

[...] there is some truth to that notion, depending on the region or country one is talking about. The transition describes two trends: the decline in birth rates as the need or desire for larger numbers of children diminished, and the decline in death rates as public health initiatives and modern medicine lengthened life. By the 1990s, the rate had dropped dramatically to below 20, due in large part to basic public health interventions such as immunizations, oral rehydration therapy, and birth spacing- all of which have contributed to lower rates of infant and child mortality.

J. Kenneth Smail is correct in identifying population growth as one of the world's major concerns. Demographers can and should project national and world populations, but they should not pretend that they are accurate.

India is often described as a collection of many coun-tries held together by a common destiny and a successful democracy. Its diverse ethnic, linguistic, geographic, religious, and demographic features reflect its rich history and shape its present and future. No fewer than 16 languages are featured on Indian rupee notes. It is also only the second country to achieve a population of 1 billion. While it is an emerging economic power, life remains largely rooted in its villages. Only a small fraction of Indians are benefiting from the country's expanding industrial and information sectors. India has more people than Europe, more than Africa, more than the entire Western Hemisphere. India's population will exceed that of China before 2030 to become the world's most populous country, a distinction it will almost certainly never lose. Just one group, Indian boys below age 5, numbers 62 million--more than the total population of France. India's annual increase of nearly 19 million contributes far more to annual world population growth than any other country. This Population Bulletin presents a demographic portrait of the diverse country of India in the early years of the 21st century and offers insight into some of the forces driving continued growth.

It is a speculative demographic challenge to determine approximately how many people have every lived, but a challenging one. An estimate requires data on the length of time it is assumed that humans have been on earth, and the average population size at different periods in human history. Experts believe that, while ancestors of humans appeared about 70,000 years ago, it is generally about 50,000 years since the first humans were recognized. Other assumptions are made about population size at the dawn of agriculture and during the Roman period and Renaissance, life expectancies, and birth rates. Guesstimates selectively use this information to show scenarios of population growth, one of which estimates that about 106 billion humans have been born. The era in which critical information is unavailable is the period 8000 BC to 1 AD.