A child born today could live to see the human population reach its peak, according to the New York Times. A baby born this year will be in their 60s in the 2080s, when the global population is set to peak at around 10 billion.
But from there, the population shrinks. Demographers from the United Nations predict that we’ll hit this peak sometime in the 2080s, before a dramatic shrinking of the population down to around six billion (less than we have now).
Through the 20th century, the human population quadrupled, from around two billion in 1900 to just over eight billion in 2000. But many experts predict our population decline will be just as swift.
In most countries today, there are two or fewer children born to every two adults on average. If the global average drops below two, then this means the population will shrink.
Is this a bad thing? Or are we overpopulated as is?
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