January 17 - Policies and statistics

In 1999 the People's Democratic Republic of Laos published a National Population and Development Policy whereby they set targets for population growth in line with their objectives in terms of the country's future prospects in the world economy.

At that time the number of births per woman was 5.6 and the aim was to reduce this to 3.5 by 2010. They way they planned to do this was to educate women, provide them with more opportunities in the workplace and give them access to safe birth control methods.

According to the CIA World Factbook the number of births per woman in 2008 was 4.5, so it was on the way down. There's nothing to indicate whether this is a result of implementing the abovementioned policy.

As I read more from the Factbook I learned that Laos has a growing problem with illicit drugs. I wonder if this is also a symptom of the overpopulation problem and everyone competing for the same dollar?

Here's my book entry -

Hopefully tomorrow I'll get back to topics of a less serious and gloomy nature.