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by betaby 2578 days ago
"We're already at a point where the birth rate worldwide is just at replacement level" - that's just false.
1 comments

Ok, for sake of argument, I'll give you that, although the UN disagrees - they expect the number of babies born per year to be about the same 100 years from now as it is today.

Looking into this more, I got some UN statistics on historic and projected crude birth rates. In 1950, it was 37.2. Today, it's 18.2. They project 13.4 by 2050. Population growth drop lags birth rate drops, due to increased lifespans worldwide. As the last generations of high birth rate get past childrearing years, it'll just go down more.

So yes, the birthrate still outstrips the death rate - but at some point in the 21st century, those numbers will flip, and they've been converging for over 50 years now.