PIP: It is estimated that the population of the world will reach 4.5 billion by the end of 1982 and 6.1 billion by the year 2000. The UN Population Division provides useful demographic analyses for the period 1950-2025. The high, medium, and low variants for both estimates and projections permit users to plan for a variety of development purposes. The figures already quoted are medium variants with the range for the year 2000 projected between a low 5.8 to a high 6.3 billion. UN demographers caution that the revised estimates in 1980 do not necessarily imply a gradual or significant slowing down in global growth rates, between the 2 projections, but rather reflect a more scientific and careful assessment of regional changes. East Asia projections for the year 2000 have been revised downward from 1.5 billion to 1.4 billion with Latin America from 608 million down to 566 million. Africa's projections have been revised upward from 825 million to 853 million. The precise relationship of population growth, fertility potential, and the development objectives on the part of national governments is still unclear. During the 1980s some previously underestimated considerations, i.e., the perceptions of women's role in development, improved contraceptive techniques affecting their fertility, and increased social and economic options, will be more carefully assessed. An increase in the levels of education available for women, linked with a direct reduction in childbearing activities and satisfying and stable employment opportunities, are some of the more important factors which could cause global population growth rates to slow down and eventually stabilize. Excluding China, in lesser developed countries it is estimated that only 20% of those in the reproductive age brackets are effectively using contraceptives. At least 80% of couples in the childbearing ages should be using contraceptives if fertility rates are to be reduced to replacement levels. Due to the fact that China's population constitutes almost 1/4 of the world's population, whatever happens in China to significantly reduce that country's population growth rate should have a considerable impact on the total global rates of growth. The current annual growth rate of China's population is estimated to be between 1.2 and 1.3%, but this has fluctuated widely during the past 30 years.