Fertility
rate: 'Jaw-dropping' global crash in children being born
There were
about 2.5 billion people living on the planet in 1950 when women were having
4.7 children on average. Now, there are three times more people, and the population
keeps increasing even though women are having an average of 2.4 children, much
fewer than in the previous century. The problem is that the fertility rate is
declining in many countries around the world, save Africa. As a result,
researchers predict that the world population will peak at 9.7 billion around
2064 and start declining. Also, the fertility rate stays below the replacement
level of 2.1 in most countries while people live longer and longer. Consequently,
while the population of under-fives is predicted to decline from 681 million in
2017 to 400 million in 2100, the number of over-eighties is going to increase
from 141 million to 866 million during the same period. In short, 681 vs. 141
to 400 vs. 866. This means that the world is going to face very serious social
and economic challenges to sustain the rapidly aging societies. For example,
instead of restricting immigrants from other countries, many countries may have
to compete to attract young people from Sub-Saharan Africa. There may be no
room for racial discrimination, but age barriers may arise instead.
Environmentally,
the fewer the better the number of humans is, but sociologically, that could pose
significant challenges to sustaining societies.
Enjoy
reading the article and think about how human ingenuities could cope with this
population problem.
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