Population of Asia
"Diversity+Asia " of Asia Center, Seoul National University
'Diversity+Asia' is the name of web-zine published by Asia Center, Seoul National University. It aims to analyze current issues and their history, and the context of society, religion, culture, politics, economy of Asian countries in a deep and new point of view. ARIC has participated in the 9th issue (June, 2020) of Diversity+Asia to analyze the characteristics of Youth Population in Asia, from population growth to migration issues. Detailed description of our analysis results are as in the following.
Diversity Asia: Youth Population of Asia
(Posted : June, 2020 )
Is the Population of Asia increasing?
Asia (including China and India) is a continent inhabited by a large population of about 4.6 billion people in 2020, accounting for about 60 percent of the total world population of 7.8 billion. Excluding China (14.3 billion won) and India (13.8 billion won), which show very extreme figures, it has a population of about 1.8 billion, which is larger than other continents, and Africa will overtake Asia's population by 2045, but if China and India's population are combined, it will not give up the top spot in terms of population size.
China, known as the world's No. 1 population holder, is expected to shift to a downward trend after 2025, with India expected to maintain its upward trend after overtaking the Chinese population.
Are all parts of Asia showing similar gains?
Asia is home to 48 countries based on UN standards, which has a wide range of area and population, and is a continent with diverse socio-political and economic patterns for each region and country within the continent. For this reason, Asia's population has characteristics that diverge rather than converge in all countries or regions. Southeast Asia, South Asia and West Asia, where many developing countries are still located, have a higher trend of population growth than other regions. Central Asia is showing a very gradual population growth trend, and East Asia, which includes advanced countries such as South Korea and Japan, is beginning to see its population decline along the demographic pattern of advanced countries.
Will the Asian population continue to grow?
Because of its growing population, there is a preconceived notion that Asia’s birth rate will be high. In the 1960s, the crude birth rate recorded a very high birth rate of 40, but it later declined to less than 20 in 2017. Of course, the figure is still higher than that of Europe, America, and Oceania, but the difference is very small at less than 10.
Despite the decline in the crude birth rate in Africa, the rapid growth of the total population is believed to be a decrease in infant deaths and an increase in the elderly population due to the development of medical technology. A drastic change in China's crude birth rate is noticeable, which is believed to be an artificial change due to China's birth policy.
Is Asian youth population converging? or diverging?
Looking at the graphs, excluding Eastern Asia and China, there are similar patterns of trends, which hit a low point in 1970 and maintained some gains before falling again in 2010~2020. Those in their 20s in 1970 and 2020 were born between 1940 and 1950 and 1990 and 2000, respectively, and are believed to have reduced births due to World War II and the Asian economic crisis. As a result, the population of youth in Asia is converging into declining trends.