The chart shows the annual rate of global population growth according to historical estimates and projections from the UN World Population Prospects.

The growth rate peaked in 1963 at over 2% per year, and since then, it has more than halved, falling to less than 1% by 2020.

The UN demographers expect rates to continue falling until the end of the century, eventually leading to negative growth rates and a shrinking global population.

Source: Our World in Data.

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[–] 24 points 4 days ago (2 children)

I hate this graph. First, the ceiling is 2.5%, but the floor is -0.5%, which skews the data to look more impressive at the top end and show the floor more drastically. The second is that it starts at 1950, skips 30 years, and then goes in 20 year segments. Third is that half of the graph is guess work. Sure, maybe it's a good guess, but estimating population growth 80 years into the future based on information from the baby boomer generation is wild. Over all, this is a graph with an agenda. Maybe the agenda is needed and necessary, but math isn't biased. Math is absolute. Skewing the math to make it say what you want it to say is bad practices.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 days ago

    What makes u think the prediction is based on the Baby Boomer Generation? I think the prediction is very much rather based on how the fertility rate drops the further a country develops. Higher education levels and better living conditions have shown to reduce the fertility rate in western countries, and now that developing countries are catching up, we can expect (and we see that already) that their fertility rates are dropping as well, hence being a good basis to estimate the future total population numbers.

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  • [–] 11 points 4 days ago (3 children)

    Is that a bad thing?

    We are running out of space to support the population.

    Standard of life is shit at best.

    Future generations will curse us for bringing into the world.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 days ago (1 child)

    Standard of life won't necessarily improve with fewer workers

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  • [–] 3 points 4 days ago

    And certainly won't improve when you have hungry children waiting for you while you are working 2 jobs.

    Before you could fund your entire household with 1 income and the result was a population boom and the decline started when the standard of life started declining.

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  • [+] -6 points 4 days ago (2 children)

    we are not running out of space, that's ecofascist propaganda. We could probably support like.. idk, 10x more people if we wanted to?

    The problem isn't the population size, it's how we handle things. We have to stop relying on fossil fuels that dump poison into the air, stop having everyone drive all the time, stop eating meat all the time, stop having it be normal to live in a massive house with 5 km² of yard.. etc etc..

    We need to model things much more like Hong Kong et al (or the netherlands, if asia scares you), than america, if we want to have a nice world to live in.

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  • [–] 3 points 4 days ago (1 child)

    We could probably support like… idk, 10x more people if we wanted to?

    Wrong. We're drastically over populated and rapidly running out of time and resources.

    Stop repeating propaganda and actually research the things you want to believe in.

    90% of earths topsoil is at risk of depletion by 2050

    Global freshwater demand will exceed supply 40% by 2030

    Global human population has surpassed Earth’s sustainable carrying capacity.

    Global carbon emissions are still rising

    The latest CFSv2 model runs now show the Nino 3.4 SST anomaly forecast peaking at 4.10°C in November.

    The arctic sea ice extent is declining rapidly and we're likely headed into a Blue Ocean Event later this year, and potentially a double BOE depending on how the El Nino and summer in the southern hemisphere go.

    June 2026 came in as the second warmest on record since 1940 at 1.39°C above the 1850-1900 pre-industrial baseline, second only to 2024 at 1.50°C above the baseline

    The world is likely to exceed a key global warming target soon but the earths alebedo with the declining sea ice and lack of cloud cover will impact these numbers massively and isn't being predicted for, which means that 4.5c above the baseline by 2060 is now possible.

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  • [–] -1 points 4 days ago (1 child)

    Is that a bad thing?

    It is for the increasingly small number of working age people having to pay the retirement and medical expenses of the increasingly large number of old people.

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  • [–] 5 points 4 days ago (1 child)

    People are unable to afford groceries for themselves and having even 1 or 2 children on an already strained budget and that budget is from both parents working 2 jobs.

    The retirement system was conceptualised in an age when 1 household could support itself with 1 income while having 3-5 children and could also afford a car, house and vacation, none of that is possible these days and keeps getting worse so declining population is the direct consequence for worsening standard of life.

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  • [–] 5 points 4 days ago

    So... The baby boom.

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