Bleak future: Global population shrinking rapidly, says UN

Population growth has been widely discussed, as in recent decades there has been an exponential increase in the number of people in the world. Recently, the world population reached the 8 billion people mark, and predictions about the future of the population have been analyzed.

UN data shows that the world population is expected to reach around 9 billion people by 2050. This number reveals a decrease in the birth rate, when compared to the time it took to grow 1 billion people, which was 12 years last time.

Countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America continue to see an increase in population growth. But even these will see their growth slow down, as is already happening in Europe. This reduction is not just a hypothesis, but a fact. However, how could this affect humanity?

Social and economic impacts

A reduction in population numbers can have an impact on the economy and, consequently, on people’s lives. Scholars and researchers believe in two scenarios.

One in which population reduction leads to lower demand for services and food. On the other hand, they argue that this can generate a major economic impact due to the reduced performance of economically active roles.

Models that aim to estimate population growth, such as the well-known “Too Little Too Late” model, which shows a population increase in this century and a reduction from the year 2100 onwards, do not consider essential aspects of population growth, as stated by Beniamino Callegari, one of the authors of the UN report.

In these studies, extreme poverty is expected to disappear by 2060. However, it is known that demographic changes of this magnitude depend on uncertain scenarios and actions to be taken in the coming years.

So what does the report tell us?

Finally, it can be concluded from the study that the number of people still tends to increase, suffering a slowdown. This can bring both benefits and impacts to the global economy. But all of this depends on the paths we follow.