How do we know that population growth is coming to an end?

Wed, 18 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Following decades of very fast population growth, there is often concern that population growth is out-of-control: that an end to growth is not in sight.

But we know this is not the case: population growth is slowing and will come to an end. How do we know? The moment in demographic history when the number of children in the world stops increasing is not far away. It is the moment that Hans Rosling famously called ‘peak child’ and it is pre-emptive of the moment in history when the population stops increasing.