Why Is Population Growth Seldom Discussed?

[NewDeal_Dem]

20. NEARLY half of all people now live in countries where women, on average, give birth to fewer than

2.1 babies — the number generally required to replace both parents — over their lifetimes. This is true in Melbourne and Moscow, São Paulo and Seoul, Tehran and Tokyo. It is not limited to the West, or to rich countries; it is happening in places as diverse as Armenia, Bhutan, El Salvador, Poland and Qatar...

Very high national fertility rates have not disappeared, but they are now mostly concentrated in a single region: sub-Saharan Africa. Last year, all five countries with estimated total fertility rates (the average number of births per woman) at six or higher — Niger, Mali, Somalia, Uganda and Burkina Faso — were there. So were nearly all of the 18 countries with fertility rates of five or more (the exceptions were Afghanistan and East Timor).

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/05/opinion/sunday/bye-bye-baby.html?_r=0


For decades we’ve read scary headlines about the consequences of overpopulation, from food shortages and wars to running out of water. But it turns out that the world’s population growth rate is now half of what it was forty years ago: 1.2 percent. After peaking at 2.1 in the 1970s, it hit the brakes – and at this pace the number of people on Earth should stop growing and start falling in less than 50 years.

Today the planet is home to 7.2 billion people — more than at any point in recorded history. Yet one hundred years from now, the number will be smaller. Back in 1950, the global fertility rate averaged about five children per woman, but today that global average is down to 2.58 (total fertility rate as of 2011).

Fertility rates remain high across Africa, which is home to 29 of the 31 “high fertility” countries where the average women has 5 or more children. Niger ranks at the top with an average of 7 children per woman. Still, these “high fertility” regions account for just 9 percent of the world’s population: 48 percent live in “low fertility” countries (< 2.1 children), and another 43 percent live in “intermediate fertility” countries (between 2.1 and 5 children).

http://www.ozy.com/acumen/world-population-decline/4357


Africa is the only continent with reproduction significantly above zpg, and for the most part, Africa has a low population density -- and low average resource use as well.