Washington Post (November 19)
“In 1798, British economist Thomas Malthus forecast that an increasing population would soon outstrip, disastrously, nature’s capacity to feed so many people…. And yet here we are: The world’s population has octupled since Malthus’s day, more than doubled since 1968, and living standards around the world have vastly, though unevenly, improved during that time.” It is worth celebrating November 15, the day “Planet Earth welcomed its eight-billionth living inhabitant.”
Tags: 1798, Celebrating, Earth, Economist, Forecast, Inhabitant, Living standards, Malthus, Nature’s capacity, Octupled, Outstrip, Population
Washington Post (August 17)
“By next year, India will become the most populous nation. This, like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s splendidly insouciant visit to Taiwan, will diminish today’s fatalism about China — the fallacious assumption that its trajectory is inevitably upward, so it must be accommodated.” Chinese labor is now “increasingly expensive and decreasingly abundant,” as its population peaks and declines by roughly half.
Tags: Abundant, China, Diminish, Expensive, Fallacious, Fatalism, India, Labor, Peaks, Pelosi, Population, Populous, Taiwan, Trajectory
CNN (August 12)
“Hong Kong has recorded its sharpest annual drop in population,” falling from “7.41 million people to 7.29 million, a 1.6% decrease.” Experts attribute the exodus to “strict Covid control measures and a political crackdown that have taken the shine off a financial hub long advertised as ‘Asia’s world city.’”
Tags: 1.6% decrease, Annual, Asia, Control measures, Covid, Drop, Exodus, Experts, Financial hub, Hong Kong, Political crackdown, Population, Strict
Time (April 26)
The CDC found that “almost 60% of the U.S. population—and 75% of U.S. children—have evidence in their blood suggesting a past infection with the virus that causes COVID-19…. By that estimate, most people in the U.S.—almost 200 million—have had COVID-19 as of February. That far exceeds the 80.8 million cases officially tallied by the CDC as of April 26.”
Taipei Times (January 18)
In a development likely to affect mainland China’s growth potential, the birthrate “has fallen to its lowest level in six decades, barely outnumbering deaths last year despite major government efforts to increase population growth and stave off a demographic crisis.”
Tags: Birthrate, China, Deaths, Demographic crisis, Development, Efforts, Fallen, Government, Growth, Lowest, Mainland, Population, Potential
BBC (August 17)
“Unprecedented levels of dam building and water extraction by nations on great rivers are leaving countries further downstream increasingly thirsty, increasing the risk of conflicts.” During the 20th Century, “global water use grew at more than twice the rate of population increase.” As a result, water crises have consistently ranked high in the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks and look poised to become an increasing source of conflict.
Tags: Conflict, Conflicts, Crises, Dam building, Downstream, Extraction, Population, Risk, Rivers, Thirsty, Unprecedented, Water, Water use
Denver Post (October 20)
“Poor people around the world who were among the hardest hit by the virus pandemic are also likely to be the last to recover from it.” The vaccines showing the most promise “need nonstop sterile refrigeration to stay potent and safe.” This isn’t available for over a third of the population. “Nearly 3 billion of the world’s 7.8 billion people live where temperature-controlled storage is insufficient for an immunization campaign to bring COVID-19 under control.”
Tags: COVID-19, Immunization, Pandemic, Poor, Population, Potent, Recover, Refrigeration, Safe, Sterile, Storage, Temperature, Vaccines
Investment Week (July 20)
“The US silver economy is worth $7trn alone, making it more valuable than the economies of Britain, Japan, or India. In the past 18 years, companies whose businesses relate to the ageing population have achieved average revenue and earnings growth that has outperformed the global market. This trend is expected to continue gathering momentum.”
Tags: Ageing, Britain, Earnings growth, Global market, India, Japan, Outperformed, Population, Revenue, Silver economy, Trend, U.S.
Time (April 22)
“Greece has an elderly population and a fragile economy,” but despite being a tourist mecca has somehow “escaped the worst of the coronavirus so far….with only 2,245 confirmed cases and 116 deaths as of April 21, one of the lowest counts in the European Union.” Some of this may be luck, but experts are attributing the early imposition of stringent “measures, and the way Greeks have largely abided by them.”
Tags: Confirmed, Coronavirus, Deaths, Economy, Elderly, EU, Fragile, Greece, Greeks, Population, Stringent “measures, Tourist
Financial Times (December 27)
“Japan is on the brink of crossing a long-feared demographic lines where the indigenous population will be shrinking at the rate of one person per minute.”
Tags: Brink, Demographics, Japan, Long-feared, Population
