....but not until it crests at nearly 10 billion by the 2060s:
World's population likely to shrink after 50 yearsThe world's population is likely to peak at 9.7 billion in 2064, and then decline to about 8.8 billion by the end of the century, as women get better access to education and contraception, a
new study has found.
By 2100, 183 of 195 countries will not have fertility rates required to maintain the current population, with a projected 2.1 births per woman, researchers from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington's School of Medicine said.
Some 23 countries -- including Japan, Thailand, Italy, and Spain -- will see populations shrink by more than 50%, researchers said.
However, the population of sub-Saharan Africa could triple, allowing for just under half of the world's population to be African by the end of the century.
The modeling study, published Tuesday in The Lancet, also forecasts dramatic declines in working-age populations in countries including India and China, which will hurt economic growth and could have negative implications for labor forces and social support systems, researchers said.
You know what our secret weapon is to avoid a decline in the working-age population and resulting stagnation here in the United States? Immigration.
