25 million people in Australia

Australia is a very large island-continent, but it is practically empty. Indeed, with barely more than 3 inhabitants per km2, it is mostly desert. The country’s population growth remains very strong, at +1.6% per year, mainly due to immigration. The population is concentrated in a few large cities, all located on the coast. Sydney has…

Canada’s population surpasses 37 million

Canada has just passed the 37 million mark. Its population growth has improved slightly over the past year, rising to + 1.38% per year. All provinces and territories increased, with the exception of Newfoundland and Labrador, in the easternmost part of the country. Very high immigration is the main component of this growth, at 85%…

Koreas: historic meeting between the two leaders of north and south

The two leaders of North Korea and South Korea met Friday, April 27. Kim Jong-un, for the north, and Moon Jae-in, for the south, have found themselves for an unprecedented summit at the border between the two countries. Recall that they are technically still at war, and that so far only an armistice was signed…

More than 600,000 inhabitants in Luxembourg

Just a few years after having crossed the threshold of 500 000 inhabitants (2010), Luxembourg has just crossed a new important demographic threshold. As of January 1, 2018, there were 602,005 inhabitants in the country, an annual increase of +1.92%. Immigration is the major source of this increase, the country welcoming more and more foreigners,…

Miguel Díaz-Canel, new president of Cuba

A page has turned in Cuba. The country has just appointed a new president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, 58, replacing his predecessor Raúl Castro, 86, former brother of the famous Fidel Castro. The Castro brothers had been in power since the 1959 Revolution, which dislodged the bloody dictator Fulgencio Batista, the latter being supported by the United…

Death Penalty is falling in the world

Amnesty International released its annual report on the death penalty around the world yesterday (12 April). It appears that 993 executions were recorded in 23 countries last year. This is a slight decrease of 4% compared to 2016 (1032 executions), and a very significant decline of 39% since 2015. That year, 1634 people were executed…

Martin Luther King was murdered 50 years ago

Fifty years ago today, Martin Luther King was murdered in Memphis. He fought for human rights, including the civil rights of African Americans, but also for the rights of the poor and against the militarization of American society. The Martin Luther King Day is a holiday in the United States, and marks the anniversary of…

One billion people in the Americas

The American continent, which extends from Canada‘s Great North to the southernmost tip of Chile, now has more than one billion inhabitants. The Americas are a multiple continent, divided into several distinct parts, particularly between the highly developed and industrialized North, and the less developed but soon to be-developed South, as well as subregions such…