Figure 3.24: Trends in natural population increases, 1990–2011. The orange and blue columns show that rates of natural increase have declined steadily throughout the region. They are projected to continue to do so into the future. Nevertheless, in many countries, natural population increase remains high enough to outstrip efforts to improve standards of living. Note that the rates of natural increase are for a few selected countries and for the entire region.

[Source consulted: 2011 World Population Data Sheet, Population Reference Bureau, at http://www.prb.org/pdf11/2011population-data-sheet_eng.pdf]