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The world’s population may peak in your lifetime. What happens next?

Low birth rates are a problem not just for individual countries, but for humanity

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    • The main reason that birth rates are low is simple: People today want smaller families than people did in the past.
    • The main reason that birth rates are low is simple: People today want smaller families than people did in the past.
    • The main reason that birth rates are low is simple: People today want smaller families than people did in the past. PHOTO: YEN MENG JIIN, BT
    • The main reason that birth rates are low is simple: People today want smaller families than people did in the past. PHOTO: KELVIN CHNG, ST

    Dean Spears

    Published Fri, Sep 22, 2023 · 10:00 AM

    THE global human population has been climbing for the past two centuries. But what is normal for all of us alive today – growing up while the world is growing rapidly – may be a blip in human history.

    Children born today will very likely live to see the end of global population growth.

    A baby born this year will be 60 in the 2080s, when demographers at the United Nations (UN) expect the size of humanity to peak. The Wittgenstein Center for Demography and Global Human Capital in Vienna places the peak in the 2070s. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington puts it in the 2060s.

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