The number of young people aged between 10 and 19 has reached a peak at 1.2 billion, or nearly a fifth of the total world population, United Nations figures showed yesterday. The UN report was published in an effort to make people aware that alongside being the largest teenage population the world has seen, there are many dangers associated to their characteristic vulnerability. Teenagers are the most vulnerable to HIV/AIDS, the health impacts of poverty, drugs, discrimination, violence and sexual trafficking, it states.
However, if their healthcare and social needs can be met, teenagers could develop into the largest, most vibrant workforces ever seen when they reach adulthood, according to the New Scientist.
Despite the potential for the future, this report alarmed many healthcare and health providing organizations. The New Scientist rings this as a wake-up call to those providing health services to expand their prerogative to those in developing countries. Young women have the highest rate of HIV contraction, according to the UN report.
Ninety percent of the 1.2 billion teenagers live in the developing world. According to the New Scientist, this is due to the high fertility and low death rates globally. The larger a population, however, also means that a larger number are likely to succumb to disease and illness.
The economic potential this population has to offer is also worth noting. Called the "demographic window of economic opportunity" by reporter Shaoni Bhattacharya, the largest teenage population ever, can also serve as the largest workforce ever known to man.
If not met with the proper precautions by governments and health care organizations worldwide, however, then this could be hazardous. Rampant diseases in the third world can easily invalidate a prospective future. Furthermore, the proposal of family planning by the United Nations does not come without statistical backing. If proper measures are not taken to limit the world's population and fertility rate, the population could go up to about 11 billion, instead of the 8.9 billion projection.
Other statistical data provided by the United Nations is worth noting as well. Currently 238 million young people currently survive on less than a dollar a day. There are 153 million young people who cannot read or write, two-thirds of them female. HIV/AIDS has already produced 13 million orphans under the age of 15, and AIDS has become a disease of young people: half of all new HIV infections occur among young people aged 15 to 24. An estimated 6,000 adolescents a day become infected, one every 14 seconds, the majority of them young women.
Unwanted pregnancies consist of up to half of all pregnancies are unintended, and among unmarried young people, the figure is much higher. Girls in their late teenage years are twice as likely as adults to die during pregnancy and childbirth. About 14 million women aged 15 to 19 give birth every year.
Most disturbing yet is that up to four million young people are thought to become involved in sex trafficking every year.
The UN report also called for greater government funding promised by many countries to assist in successfully channeling the teenage population to a more prospective future. But without the cooperation of all countries involved, this population boom could be disastrous.
