[InclinedPlane]

tl;dr the world is developing and getting richer, and a natural consequence of that is declining fertility (birth) rates, preventing the runaway population "bomb" that so many people have feared.

[dredmorbius]

s/natural/statistically correlated/

There are a number of countries getting wealthier which don't have falling birth rates. Most are oil exporting.

Tom "Do the Math" Murphy discusses this: http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the-math/2013/09/the-real-populat...

Qatar, UAE, Kuwait, and Bahrain, especially.