The Future that Happened?
Will demographics doom China? Traffic in Beijing. Source: Wikimedia. People use to worry about overpopulation. You still see the bumper stickers: “Two’s Company, 7 Billion’s a Crowd.” But not so much anymore. Global population growth has slowed dramatically. Urban lifestyles, better health care, and birth control have dramatically reduced population growth just about everywhere. In the 1960’s, the world’s population was growing at over 2% per year. Now the growth rate is just over 1%, and it’s likely to keep falling to just above [...]