A new report in The Lancet projects that the world’s population will soon begin declining for the first time since the 1300s, when the Black Death bubonic plague pandemic killed tens of millions.
The culprit this time is the continuing decline around the world in the average number of children born to each woman, known as the total fertility rate (or TFR). The world’s TFR already has fallen from about five in 1950 to 2.2 in 2021 and is now headed to below 2.1, the level at which the population replaces itself. The left hates people – and they’ve long believed that this would be a great planet if there weren’t so many human beings. So they will applaud this trend. A declining population means less prosperity. Contrary to doomsday claims, decades of scientific research show that population growth has been associated with sharply reduced famine, poverty, and climate-related deaths. https://spectator.org/ People are “the ultimate resource”: A growing population produces more innovation and prosperity. Malthus was wrong and so were the leftist doomsayers of the last six decades who preached overpopulation and predicted eco-catastrophe by 2000 and beyond. Every couple should have the number of children that they want – and not the number that the government tells them to have. |