why have birth rates declined dramatically and how much does it matter? stephen shaw, welcome to hardtalk. thank you for having me. let s start with a basic fact. the world s population is still rising. at some point later this century, it s going to get to about 9.7 billion. and we can see the immense strain that our planet is already under in terms of resources, in terms of fragile ecosystems. and yet you seem to be saying that we as a species need to focus on having more babies. why? well, just to be clear, the reason the world s population is still growing has got nothing to do with births. births peaked in the planet around ten years ago, at around 143 million. today, that s down to around 135. we re already past peak birth as a planet. so, why is, confusingly, this total population increasing? it s because, thankfully, people are living out their lives. people are not dying the way they would have done before particularly in poorer, less developed parts of the world
but now, data scientists and demographers, like my guest today, stephen shaw, say we re actually facing a disastrous spiral of de population. why have birth rates declined dramatically and how much does it matter? stephen shaw, welcome to hardtalk. thank you for having me. let s start with a basic fact. the world s population is still rising. at some point later this century, it s going to get to about 9.7 billion. and we can see the immense strain that our planet is already under in terms of resources, in terms of fragile ecosystems. and yet you seem to be saying that we as a species need to focus on having more babies. why? well, just to be clear, the reason the world s population is still growing has got nothing to do with births. births peaked in the planet around ten years ago, at around 143 million. today, that s down to around 135. we re already past peak birth as a planet. so, why is, confusingly, this total population increasing? it s because, thankfully, people are