re: #362 SixDegrees

Pretty much all of the industrialized world has been reproducing below replacement rates for quite a while now. In the US and most of Europe, population is growing solely because of immigration.

Interestingly, a report on BBC radio a few weeks ago noted that this trend - declining birthrates - has also taken hold in much of the Middle East. It had previously been thought to be tied firmly to economic growth and the rise of a middle class, but that isn’t the case in the ME. More likely, the spread of mechanized agriculture is removing the incentive to have large families. There’s no payoff in it anymore.

World population is projected to peak within the next 30 to 50 years, then decline. Other factors - the rampant AIDs epidemic in Africa, to name a major one - may bring it down more quickly.

Actually the US population is reproducing just over replacement level. The figure I heard was 2.12 children per woman.