As of 2015, around 59.94% of the world’s population lived in Asia. The total world population was 7.2 billion people . According to age, they were distributed as follows:
- Between 0 and 15 years: 2 billion.
- Between 15 and 30 years: 2 billion.
- Between 30 and 45: 1 billion.
- Between 45 and 60: 1 billion.
- Between 60 and 75: 1 billion.
By 2030, the age segment from 0 to 15 years will have grown from 2 billion to 4 billion. That is to say, it will have doubled, and only in fifteen years . The rest of the segments, naturally, will also grow as a result of the aging of the population.
In the year 2060, there will be a total of 10 billion inhabitants. But just from this decade on, projections indicate that the trend will begin to slow down. By 2075, for example, only 1 billion more people will have joined, for a total of 11 billion. People have simply been having fewer children for many years, fostering negative growth. After 2100, we will surely begin to be fewer people on the planet.
Large families: extreme poverty
In 2017, the average size of a family that was among the 10% of the population living in extreme poverty had an average of five children . The rest of the population has an average of two children. As families have more income, the number of children begins to decrease on average, especially in countries with high infant mortality, such as Somalia, Chad, Mali and Niger, as Hans Rosling explains in his book Factfulness :
“When parents see their children survive, when child labor is no longer needed, and when women have access to and access to education and information on contraceptive methods, men and women of all cultures and religions are beginning to dream of having fewer children and providing them with better education. “
Not even religion seems an important element when it comes to counting the number of children : Muslim women have, on average, 3.1 children; Christian women have 2.7.
What makes the difference is poverty : just 200 years ago, 95% of humanity lived in extreme poverty, and that percentage has barely changed in thousands of years. If trends continue their course, by 2030 we are likely to reach 0%.
The power of wealth to lower the birth rate is so important that it is enough for a population to start having drinking water for this decline to take place, as Peter H. Diamandis explains in his book Abundance :
“Of the 1.1 billion people in the world who do not have access to clean water, 85 percent live in the countryside. Of the 2.2 million children who die each year from drinking contaminated water, the vast majority also live in the field. So a machine capable of providing clean water to these communities, by increasing the health and survival rates of children, would actually reduce fertility where it matters most. “
