By Israa Ali
KUWAIT, July 9 (KUNA) -- 'World Population Day' which will be observed on July 11 seeks to raise awareness on the need to offer adequate health, education and other essential services for the swiftly-rising global population numbers.
'World Population Day' was created by the UN Development Programme's governing council in 1989, and is currently administered by the United Nations Population Fund (UNPF).
An alarm bell was struck after the worldwide population hit the five-billion mark and this number is expected to dramatically increase to eight billion by 2025.
This year, the event discusses adolescent pregnancy, where for "too many adolescent girls pregnancy has little to do with an informed choice," says the UNPF website.
These pregnancies are often "a consequence of discrimination, rights violations (including child marriage), inadequate education or sexual coercion." The website adds that it aims to raise awareness "in the hopes of delivering a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe, and every young person's potential is fulfilled." As for the Arab world, the 2005-2009 total average population rose from 316.5 million to 339.5 million in 2014, with the bulk of these people found across seven nations - Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen.
Residents of the Arab world constitute around 7pct of the total global population, estimated at about seven billion at the end of 2013.
In Kuwait, the population was recorded by the Ministry of Health's statistics department as being around 3.72 million - including 1.18 million Kuwaitis and 2.5 million non-Kuwaitis. (end) aja.sd