Introduction: Population Decline

Abstract

The global population keeps growing. More than 200,000 people are born every day, with a pace of 150 babies a minute (Muenz and Reiterer in Wie schnell wächst die Zahl der Menschen? Weltbevölkerung und weltweite Migration. Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, 2007). In 2011, a milestone was reached: the world totalled 7 billion inhabitants, twice as many as in 1960. For the most part, approx. 90 %, this population explosion took or takes place in third world countries. Megacities primarily form in these countries, varying from Mumbai to Manila. Developing countries have a young and youthful population—carrying with it all the consequences. For instance, the Arab Spring in North Africa in 2011 was led by a relatively large group of well-educated youths. Simultaneously, many countries in the Westernised world have had to deal with population decline and ageing; the population declines and ages. Together with Japan, European countries, such as Italy and Germany, are the front-runners of population decline and ageing. The old continent is literally becoming old. Have the Europeans perhaps become too decadent to reproduce, like the American writer Laqueur in The Last Days of Europe (2007) noted? To be sure, the population of many European countries will continue to grow, but we also see differences in growth and decline within nation states. In particular towards the rural parts of countries we can detect population decline, ageing, and a decrease of young people.