Today, the world population is around 7 billion and according to the United Nations, this number will reach 9 billion in 2050 and continue to increase after this.
If this is correct, then in 2100 the world population will cross 11 billion and there will be no room left for the people. This seems to be dangerous as well as uncontrollable.
However, there are people who believe the UN is predicting population growth on the basis of a few factors. The UN is the most credible source when it comes to population, human development, and economic facts.
The UN considers fertility rate, migration rates, and death rates when it calculates population prediction for the future. Considering these factors, the world population will continue to grow.
If you ask someone, a student, a teacher or anyone about the world population, they would surely say “the population explosion is coming and we may get hit anytime”. However, there are few studies and research works with findings and results contrary to what the UN has predicted.
According to these studies, “the world population has reached its peak in the 1980s and it will start to go down in the future”, instead of growing with the current rate.
Let’s continue with the top news stories of the day.
Canadian journalist John Ibbitson and political scientist Darrell Bricker have co-authored a book titled as Empty Planet and the duo doesn’t agree with the UN facts and population predictions.
They believe the UN data lacks something really serious and that is “education and a change in the mindset”.
The authors added the world population will grow according to the UN stats but when we consider”women” and how they are reducing the number of children, we will see a continuous decline in the world population by 2050.
They believe we will reach 9 billion by 2080, at a slower rate than the UN predicted. But by 2100, the world population will be even below 9 billion and somewhere around 8 and 8.5 billion.
Most of the developing and developed countries have started to show a slowdown in their population.
There has been a remarkable reduction in the fertility rate over the years.
In the Philippines, the fertility rate dropped from 3.7% to 2.7% between 2003 and 2018, just within 15 years. It makes it one of the top news stories of the day.
There are other countries like Chad where the fertility rate is still increasing. Not all countries will control the population at the same rate and simultaneously but we will see a decline in the world population in the future.
Another factor that the world has ignored when it comes to population prediction for the future is “women’s education”. In the book Empty Plant, the authors did surveys and studies in 26 countries. They asked women in all these countries how many kids they want; the answer was around 2. This seems to be a great change in women mindset and how they are planning to have fewer children.
In the future, women may also like to have one child instead of two and this will potentially cause a huge decline in the world population
