Predicting future population chances remains a difficult issue.
But while popular (and populist) media tends to dramatise every
new release of population predictions, it is less often
discussed that these figures are one possible scenario for what
is an extremely complex issue. Small political and cultural
changes in societies can lead to drastic long terms effects that
change the future numbers of people within a country. The
current estimates are therefore never figures that are engraved
in stone, but estimates that look at the current trends that we
can observe. The different scenarios therefore have an extreme
variability, ranging from a decline down to just above 6 billion
to an increase up to almost 16 billion. These are of course the
very extreme scenarios in the latest revision of the Unites
Nations’ World Population Prospects that has just been released.
While it is almost certain that any scenario is likely to not
happen in that way, the trends outlined in the report are in
important political guide