For the first time in centuries, the world’s population is on its way to a decline in a few decades.
Presently, there are about 7.8 billion people in this world and the number is expected to peak in 2064.
Based on a new study published in The Lancet, the peak will be at roughly 9.7 billion and then will drop to 8.8 billion by 2100, where I’ll either be reincarnated into a sheep or floating around in heaven, with the latest Instagram stories ever.
Stein Emil Vollset is the lead study author and Professor of Global Health at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) – and he went into more detail about the ‘groundbreaking’ study.
Vollset told IFLScience: “The last time that global population declined was in the mid 14th century, due to the Black Plague.
More significantly, the population of up to 23 counties could shrink more than 50 percent.
Those countries include – Japan, Thailand, Italy, Spain, Portugal, South Korea.
Even China, a place associated with having a large population density, could fall from 1.4 billion people in 2017 to 732 million in 2100.
“The global total fertility rate is predicted to steadily decline, from 2.37 in 2017 to 1.66 in 2100, well below the minimum rate (2.1 live births per woman) considered necessary to maintain population numbers.”
