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Prospective pilgrims arrive to stone Jamarat pillars that symbolize the devil as a part of the annual Islamic Hajj pilgrimage during the first day of Eid Al-Adha (Feast of Sacrifice) in Mecca, Saudi Arabia on 4 September, 2017 [Ramazan Turgut/Anadolu Agency]

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) said today that the Arab world population has reached 359 million in 2017.

According to the UNFPA report the life expectancy at birth for males in the Arab world is 68 years and for females 72 years.

The world’s population is expected to reach 8.6 billion by 2030.

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With global fertility declining, UNFPA said in its report that gender discrimination in some 160 countries still exists while in countries with a very low overall index one out of every three girls are married before the age of 19 years.

The report explained that developing countries annually record nearly 89 million unwanted pregnancies, 30 million unplanned births, 84 million abortions, 10 million terminated pregnancies and one million neonatal deaths.

Moreover, 95 per cent of teenage births occurs in developing countries.

The report noted that the widening wealth disparities continue at an unbelievable speed.