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Overpopulation

A common concern about life extension is that we would rapidly overrun the planet, and without management, this could happen. However, there a few factors in our favour.

In many countries, fertility rates are already dropping below that required to maintain a population, and without immigration the number of people living there would be falling.

Even with biological immortality, if people were limited to one child each, then there would be a finite maximum population to deal with. And biological immortality does not mean fictional immortality - people will still die in accidents, conflict or by choice, meaning the global population would eventually start falling again.

We will have a lot of time to come up with a solution - the population won't double overnight, it might take a 100 years or so, and it's impossible to imagine what technologies may have been developed by then to help.

According to David Wood of London Futurists if death stopped tomorrow it would take a hundred years to double the planet's

See also: Space Colonization

Overpopulation News

South Korea has the world's fewest babies per woman, and the number keeps dropping

The Guardian - 28-Feb-2024

This is despite spending billions to encourage families to have more children

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China's got a problem: there are more deaths than babies being born

The Conversation (UK) - 18-Jan-2024

Experts say China's population could shrink by half to 525 million by 2100

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Nestlé's Irish baby milk plant falls victim to China's declining birth rate

Independent - 19-Oct-2023

The trend of a shrinking population is beginning to have drastic consequences

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European Union's population may have already peaked - dropped by half a million people between 2020 and 2022

Eurostat - 12-May-2023

Eurostat report explores the impact of ageing, migration, and birth rates on the EU's population landscape

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Overpopulation Resources

Click on resource name for more details.

Our Angry Earth

Amazon

A comprehensive analysis of today's environmental threats and a guide on how we can heal our planet written by Isaac Asimov

Scythe

Amazon

Dystopian book of a thrilling new series written by Neal Shusterman

More Overpopulation resources

Overpopulation Blog Posts

Longevity and coping with an ever increasing population
07-Jul-2015

Longevity and coping with an ever increasing population

Replace the defence budget with a space colonisation budget and everyone board can be shipped off planet

More Overpopulation blog posts