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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

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

Recent News

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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Falling birthrates alone will not solve the planet’s environmental problems, study states

The Guardian - 27-Mar-2023

Social and economic factors have a proven impact on birthrate

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Shrinking population, with greater proportion being elderly, could rock China's economy

Telegraph - 03-Mar-2023

China’s population could peak at 1.4bn in 2025 then almost drop by half by the end of the century

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Fertility rate decline becomes a brewing crisis in South Korea

BBC - 25-Aug-2022

Billions of dollars spent as incentive is not convincing people to have children

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China's population may have peaked last year as birthrate falls

The Guardian - 17-Jan-2022

Government policies have not reversed long-term decline in population growth

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More Overpopulation News