We need to start talking about population decline

[user4567890754]

The first signs of it are starting to show in the UK, with primary school closures. Secondary school closures will follow.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/11158f12-0133-11ee-a364-04e704863f75?shareToken=5ef47b2b4776be376153089146c8bacf

Italy is a few years ahead of us.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/may/01/plunging-birthrate-threatens-italian-schools

Japan shows where every country is headed - towards a crisis where they are on the brink of being unable to maintain social functions.

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/04/13/asia/japan-population-decline-record-drop-intl-hnk/index.html

And yet there are still people who think that we have a problem with overpopulation. It’s the opposite.

Well, if impending doom from global warming is coming, surely less people around is a good thing?

Unfortunately governments just want taxpayers, so keep encouraging people to breed, breed, breed!

With respect I think you’ve picked up on the wrong part of the problem.

We have a birth rate and a working age population in decline. I’m around 2-3 generations time this will then start to translate into population decline but we aren’t quite there yet.

The implications of course are that it’s increasingly expensive to support the older population (health and social care, state pensions, benefits etc) but with fewer workers our revenues don’t go as far as they usedcto

Don't be silly OP.

Decimating the fibre of society by demonising families with more than one child through the fear of climate change is really necessary.

We don't need children, families or society as we know it.

Now we have the advent of AI the whole structure is redundant; and we don't want cohesive, extended family units and societies to be around to think about things enough to throw a spanner in the works.

Stick to the plan. Children bad. Automation good.

Now go and shit yourself in the corner over there worrying about the climate crisis like a good little woman, won't you?

Thanks,

As you were.

I think there are enough humans atm. Eight billion.

My first thoughts are that there are less people choosing to live in rural Britain. Many schools in towns and cities are over subscribed. Net migration is high and that can counteract a low birth rate. I don't think there's an issue but maybe the government should encourage more people to move to the countryside?

People can’t afford to have children. I guess this is why some countries are starting to make abortion illegal.

As an Environmental Biology graduate, this can only be good news.

We need more immigration. There's lots of young people who want to live and work here and would help to stabilize the population.

"On the brink of being unable to maintain social functions"? Come on, now. We have more people then ever before on this planet, and we've been maintaining social functions for centuries with much smaller populations thean we have now. Get a grip.

Also, if you cannot understand that the planet has limited and finite resources and the impending threat to significant swathes of humanity is that we're running out of food production capabilities and clean water, and that the effects of that are going to be nothing short of devastating, a quick Google will give you tons of reading materials to give you a new perspective. Start with a book called Ten Billion, then come back and let us know if you still think population decrease is the thing to be worried about right now.

Surely more to do with house prices? Nothing available in most villages near me for less than half a million quid. People move to the countryside when they or their children are older so primary schools will suffer.

I'd imagine the reason there are no children goong to the school in the article. Is more likely to do with house prices and young families not being able to afford that village. Or moving away to livs closer to better job opportunities.

And the world and it's non human life sighed in relief.

All countries should be working on reducing their population and there should be embargoes on countries that refuse to do so. 8 billion is far too many people for a small planet like ours.

I’m hoping my children will emigrate to a country with a better balance between young and old. I don’t want them paying ever increasing amounts of tax with an ever decreasing quality of life.

https://www.birthgap.org/spaces/10215679/page

I recommend this documentary for further information. Demographic change is not as far away as you think. It’s going to impact the lives of people alive today. The birth rate is below replacement rate across the whole developed world already. We are currently able to attract enough migrants to the UK to keep things running, but that may change.

In around 2050 the global fertility rate may fall below replacement level. It’s already at 2.3. Replacement rate is 2.1.

On the next 100 years, we are going to have major issues feeding and watering the global population plus the re-location of entire communities due to flooding. A lower population is a good start......

They’ve been closing primary schools for decades, it’s just on occasion it hits the news. It’s nothing new. Several local primary schools closed in the 1970s. They didn’t build a new school to replace them all, or even build/rent extra classrooms for those primary schools left open. All rural. The nearest secondary school closed one of its sites (years split across two sites) later on in the 1990s - again no new school/extra development on existing site.

This is a GOOD thing. There is no more destructive species on the planet. We need a sustainable population.

Less humans would be better!

The uk is an island, maybe once all the farmland and current greenbelt is turned into housing/ warehouses / wasteland/ landfill you'll understand that we need a decline in the population.

I know declining population is a scary thought. Our model of retirement and care is based on support from the working population. Governments will have to act ... raise retirement age (✔), encourage families to care for their elderly relatives, offering good financial packages for retirement and all the staff we haven't thought of yet.

Plenty of people want to come and live here though?

If you read the article you will see that "On the brink of being unable to maintain social functions” is the way the Prime Minister of Japan is describing the crisis his country is facing right now.

I understand you concern. As the population gets older we need more young people to pay into pensions and care for the elderly. But what do you propose to do about it op? Force people to have more children?

It was pointed out on Radio 4 the other day then when labour came to power the birth rate was falling, so they put in financial incentives and things like surestart. The current government took them away and birth rate started to fall again.

As for the school you linked to, I wonder how many houses in the village are holiday homes…?

America has been looking at what their population will look like in a 100 years

Gilead here we come

Completely misunderstood the title! Population decline is a good thing, where I live has changed so much now, everything is busting at the seams. Bring on population decline I say.