How Rising Education for Women Is Shaping the Global Population

In their 1968 book The Population Bomb, biologists Paul Ehrlich and his wife Anne foretold a Malthusian future of famine and disease if humanity failed to control its growth. The Ehrlichs’ warning made sense. At the time, the global population sat at about 3.5 billion, and its rate of growth was 2.1 percent—close to the highest it had ever been. Such a reproductive pace could have outstripped our ability to compensate. 

Except that was it—1968 was the peak. We’ve since slowed the speed of our planetary conquest, so much so that a demographic transition is taking place. We have just over 7.8 billion people on the planet now, but populations in many countries are aging and even experiencing negative growth. In fact, we’re poised to drop below current levels by the end of the century—if goals for educating women and providing contraception are met. At least that’s how Stein Emil Vollset, the first author on a new, sees things.