World population and health in transition

The past 200 years have witnessed a revolution in global fertility, mortality, and population growth rates, in which the demography and health of human populations have been transformed. Vast gender and geographical inequalities in income and health persist, and new threats such as HIV/AIDS, environmental degradation, and population ageing have emerged. In July a special session of the United Nations General Assembly met to consider global progress in implementing the programme of action agreed at the 1994 international conference on population and development in Cairo. It approved far reaching recommendations for dealing with global trends in reproductive health and population. This article reviews the transition in world health and population and considers the changes that lie ahead. The economic and environmental implications of changes in the size, structure, and consumption patterns of world population are discussed in the other papers in this issue.