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During the last fifty years, we have seen the gradual increase in life expectancy and the corresponding decrease in fertility rates worldwide. This is clearly the case of countries like China, India, the United States, Brazil, Japan, and Gabon, where dramatic improvements can be seen. On the other hand, countries like Russia, South Africa and Afghanistan, show moderate improvement.

It is very interesting to note, that although they have improved, a large cluster of African countries remain far from the overall trend, with lower life expectancy rates and higher fertility rates. For more information, check Google’s interactive bubble chart based on World Bank data.