The world is ill-prepared for the global crash in children being born which is set to have a “jaw-dropping” impact on societies, say researchers.
Falling fertility rates mean nearly every country could have shrinking populations by the end of the century.
And 23 nations – including Spain and Japan – are expected to see their populations halve by 2100.
Countries will also age dramatically, with as many people turning 80 as there are being born.
What is going on?
The fertility rate – the average number of children a woman gives birth to – is falling.
If the number falls below approximately 2.1, then the size of the population starts to fall.
In 1950, women were having an average of 4.7 children in their lifetime.
Researchers at the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation showed the global fertility rate nearly halved to 2.4 in 2017 – and their study, published in the Lancet, projects it will fall below 1.7 by 2100.[…]
Continue reading: ‘Jaw-dropping’ world fertility rate crash expected
msamba 
That reminds me of P. D. James’s book “The children of men”, in which she addresses a future life on earth without any children being born. On the other hand, the old people, who cannot help themselves anymore, are being euthanized.
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One step away from Solyent Green . I’ll have to look for that title and read it, thanks!
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It is her one and only Science Fiction story. It has also been made into a movie, but I found that disappointing.
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I’ll sick to the book then.
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I think it is hard to make a good book into a good movie, there is just a limited amount of time. I can live with omissions because of the time restraint, but I find it hard to accept changes of the story itself and the ending.
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Not so much a removal of the fourth wall as replacing the building altogether? I can sympathise, but see them as different and not equally valid media (books are better in most ways but film has some great possibilities literature lacks)?
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That’s true, of course. Maybe that’s an approach I should try.
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Hopefully old people then will be in better physical shape due to advancements in medicine.
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Indeed!
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