A very interesting interview appeared on Bloomberg mid July, about the point when the world’s population peaks and starts to reduce – which will happen this century. The person being interviewed was political demographer Jennifer Sciubba, author of ‘8 Billion and Counting: How Sex, Death, and Migration Shape Our World.’
There is a lot of content in this interview, which is definitely worth a read if you are concerned about the world’s population. But the main points are:
- That many shifts in global population are predictable
- That global population reached 8 billion in 2022
- That shortly after that date China begins to depopulate
- That global population will peak at around 10.3 billion in some 50 years’ time
- That some time around the 2080s, global population is likely to start shrinking
- That, when this happens, it will be because of people’s choice to have fewer children, which is already happening in certain countries
- That anticipated population rise and fall makes planning decisions very difficult, particularly at the municipal and infrastructure levels.
Read the article here. It also includes a review of the situation specific to some particular countries.