With every passing day, our world seems to be imploding, be it natural calamities like bushfires or the COVID-19 pandemic that is claiming hundreds of lives every day.?
And now, researchers claim that humanity is going to experience a severe drop in population, all around the globe.
The average number of children a woman gives birth to is on a considerable decline, according to researchers. In the 1950s women were having an average of 4.7 children in their lifetime. If this number goes below 2.1, it impacts the size of the population causing to drop.?
Researchers at the University of Washington¡¯s Institute for Health and Metrics and Evaluation have revealed in their study that this number slashed in half in 2017 at 2.4, and their study fears that by the year 2100 we¡¯re going to see it fall below 1.7.
Researchers expect the population on Earth will peak to 9.7 billion by the year 2064 and come crashing down to 8.8 billion as the century ends.?
In case you were wondering that the sperm counts are to be blamed for this, you¡¯re wrong. The real reason contributing to this is better access to contraception as well as women being more career-driven today, who prefer having fewer children overall.
Researchers highlight the nations that would have the most impact with the first on the list being Japan -- a nation that is already dealing with a massive population imbalance (more old population than youth). Researchers claim that the population is projected to drop from 128 million -- its peak as recorded in the year 2017 -- to less than 53 million by 2100.?Italy¡¯s population will drop from 61 million in 2017 to just 28 million by the end of the century.
These two nations are from the list of 23 nations (which also include South Korea, Thailand, Portugal, Spain and others) that will experience its population to drop in half by the end of the century.
India will take China¡¯s place for the most populated nation in the world after China¡¯s population will peak at 1.4 billion and drop to 732 million in 2100.
Sure, you might be thinking that a lower population means lesser damage to our planet and more opportunities for all, but it will come with major drawbacks too.?
Professor Murray explained in a conversation with BBC, "That would be true except for the inverted age structure (more old people than young people) and all the uniformly negative consequences of an inverted age structure,"
He adds,? "It will create enormous social change. It makes me worried because I have an eight-year-old daughter and I wonder what the world will be like."
The imbalance will be struck in a manner as more population in the world will be dependant with a major chunk involving the elderly population. In such a situation, major stress can be experienced on healthcare, among other social challenges.
Elon Musk too commented about this prediction in his odd and unusual way, stating, ¡°Population collapse is 2nd biggest danger to civilization after AI imo.¡± He added, ¡°This thing we call ¡°money¡± is just a (slow, lossy & unsecure) database for labor allocation. Investing is meaningless without people, at least until AGI happens, which will obviate need for labor & necessitate UBI.¡±
This was also said by him nearly a year ago at the discussion with Alibaba¡¯s Jack Ma in Shanghai.