Introduction
World Population Prospects

The future number of people on the globe, evidently, is an important antropogenic factor of global change. However, even more important, will be their spatial distribution. This paper will emphasize the projected massive shift in population from the developed countries of Europe and Northern America to the future population giants of Asia and Africa. It will identify those countries that will add the largest number of people to the globe between now and 2050. We will also identify countries and regions that had the highest growth rates in the past. In a second chapter some methodological issues will be discussed - such as the question, whether probabilistic projections or scenario methods could improve the predictive capability of population projections. The final chapter of the document deals with issues that are often considered limiting factors of global population growth: food and epidemic disease (especially AIDS).