The world's population looks set to smash through the seven billion barrier in the next few days, according to the United Nations.

It comes just 12 years since the total reached six billion - with official estimates saying the figure will top eight billion in 2025 and 10 billion before the end of the century.

And it is most likely the baby will be born in the Asia-Pacific region - where the population growth rate is higher than anywhere else in the world.

Experts say the pace of growth - which has seen the number of people on the planet triple since 1940 - poses an increasing danger to citizens.

With more people to feed, house and provide medical care for, they say the world's resources look set to come under more strain than ever before.

As populations stabilise in the industrial world, almost all growth in the near future is expected to take place in developing countries.

Of the 2.3 billion people the UN believes will be added by 2050, more than one billion will live in sub-Saharan Africa. The Indian subcontinent will add some 630 million people.

It will mean less land and water available for each person. Poorer people, who tend to depend more on natural resources, will bear the brunt as they will not be able to compete with the rich.

The major issues will be how to feed the new arrivals, which will see the need for new varieties of improved crops.

Ageing populations are also set to pose a problem with some industrial countries, such as Japan, nearly doubling its share of the population aged 65 and over in the past 20 years. This will put increased pressure on pension and healthcare systems.

But despite the problems the world is facing, Under-Secretary-General of the UN Dr Noeleen Heyzer said the seventh billion child of the world has a better chance of surviving past the age of five than a decade ago.

The life expectancy for both women and men has also increased in every Asian and Pacific country during the past decade, Dr Heyzer added.

And although the pace of development is 1.1 percent in 2011 - meaning an extra 78 million people will live on the planet by the end of this year - it has slowed down slightly from its peak of 2 percent in 1968.

(Read by Emily Cheng. Emily Cheng is a journalist at the China Daily Website.)

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(Agencies)