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Brazilian population to stop growing in 2039
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-11-28 10:26

RIO DE JANEIRO -- The Brazilian population, which currently totals 190.2 million, will stop growing in the year 2039, according to a study released on Thursday by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).

According to the study, the Brazilian population's growth rate has been decreasing from 3 percent in 1960 to 1.5 percent in 2008. The population will reach zero growth in 2039, and is expected to register negative growth rate from then on.

By 2050, the growth rate will fall to minus 0.29 percent, and the population is expected to reach 215.6 million.

"The figures show a clear change in the country's age structure," said IBGE Population and Social Indexes coordinator Luiz Antonio Oliveira. The changes are having and will have an impact on the country's social security, health and education sectors, he added.

According to the study, the women to men ratio in Brazil will also suffer great changes in the next decades. In 2050, IBGE expects Brazil to have 7 million more women than men, up from 2.5 million women in 2000.

The study also shows that the Brazilian population is aging fast: in 2008, for every group of 100 children aging 0-14, there are 24.7 people who are older than 65. In 2050, however, the country is expected to have 172.7 elders for every group of 100 children.

The child mortality rate will also keep falling in Brazil in the next few years, shows the statistics. The rate has fallen to 23.3 deaths to every 1,000 births in 2008. By 2015, the figure is expected to fall to 18.5.