This website uses cookies and other technologies to help us provide you with better content and customized services. If you want to continue to enjoy this website’s content, please agree to our use of cookies. For more information on cookies and their use, please see our latest Privacy Policy.

Accept

cwlogo

切換側邊選單 切換搜尋選單

Even as Birth Rates Decline, Overpopulation Remains a Global Challenge

Even as Birth Rates Decline, Overpopulation Remains a Global Challenge

Source:REUTERS/Toru Hanai

The world’s population is likely to hit 9.8 billion by 2050, although fertility rates are falling globally.

Views

713
Share

Even as Birth Rates Decline, Overpopulation Remains a Global Challenge

By Adam Jezard
web only

The vision of a post-apocalyptic overpopulated world has been a favourite nightmare scenario of science-fiction writers and filmmakers for decades: think Blade Runner and Soylent Green.

But data from a variety of sources – including the UN and the World Bank – indicates that the total number of live births is falling around the world, including in developing nations.

Image: Bloomberg/World Bank

Some commentators have suggested the decrease in fertility rates is good news for our descendants who will escape gruesome deaths brought on by food shortages and starvation, like in the movies.

In previous generations, national birth rates were high as adult populations reproduced to ensure they would be taken care of in old age, and parents frequently had many children as insurance against high infant mortality rates. However, factors such as the development of more effective medicines and improved access to education for women may be contributing to declining fertility rates.

Image: Our World in Data /UN

Despite this, some regions are still experience significant population growth.The UN noted, for example, that despite lower fertility rates in Africa, where rates fell from 5.1 births per woman between 2000-2005 to 4.7 births between 2010-2015, the populations of 26 African countries are likely to “at least double” by 2050.

Even with fertility rates falling globally, the UN points out, the world’s population is likely to total 9.8 billion by 2050.

Image: Bloomberg/World Bank


Additional Reading

Stop Treating the Millennials As Children
Aquaculture Could Feed the World and Protect the Planet - If We Get It Right
Taiwan: A Nation 'Half Empty' or 'Half Full'?

Original content can be found at the website of World Economic Forum.

♦ Even as birth rates decline overpopulation remains a global challenge

This article is reproduced under the permission of World Economic Forum (WEF) and terms of Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 Unported License (“CCPL”). It presents the opinion or perspective of the original author / organization, which does not represent the standpoint of CommonWealth magazine.

Views

713
Share

Keywords:

好友人數