China faces third consecutive year of population decline
Independent - 17-Jan-2025Efforts to reverse low birth rates struggle against economic, cultural, and structural challenges
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
U.S. population will grow slowly, with more people dying than being born by 2033
The Hill - 14-Jan-2025The 2054 population estimate has decreased from 383 million to 372 million
The end of growth: A global demographic shift
Our World in Data - 13-Jan-2025Declining birth rates mark the era of 'peak child' and population change
UK's fertility crisis with young people opting out of parenthood
BBC - 28-Oct-2024Economic pressures and changing lifestyles are driving a dramatic decline in fertility rates
Overpopulation Resources
Click on resource name for more details.
Irreplaceable: Adapting to lower birth rates and longer lives
29-Apr-2025
Lunchtime webinar organised by International Longevity Centre UK and supported by the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries
Our Angry Earth
A comprehensive analysis of today's environmental threats and a guide on how we can heal our planet written by Isaac Asimov
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
Topics covered in this page:
Overpopulation
