Falling population

[TheArts]

Is this actually a thing?
Is our population falling?
Really?
I don't think it is.
All I see everywhere I go is houses being built by their thousands all over beautiful greenbelt areas in our beautiful countryside with councils stating that we need thousands of extra houses for our growing population.
So surely our population is growing in this case, not falling. The erosion of our green areas is being sacrificed for our increasing population, that's what my local council told me when I petitioned against my local green areas being destroyed and concreted over.

Of course it's not falling. It is predicted that by 2036 our population will be nearly 74 million and that by 2050 the whole world will be living on our tiny island.

There is statistical evidence that the birth rate is dropping and that the population will start to reduce. People in older age will increase, while children and working aged people will be fewer, resulting in less tax being generated to pay for services.

Personally, I think it's a good thing. It's necessary for our planet. But governments across the world need to be planning for this, and I can't see that they are.

I suspect there are some very tough times ahead.

The birth rate is falling but people are living for longer so there are more people alive at the same time.

I think natural population is falling & growth is forecast on immigration.

It has been for ages.

We do have an ageing population eg more over 65s than under 15s

Plenty of room for all 🤣

Falling populations means falling consumption and as good as that might be for the environment, the economic system we seem stuck with requires continuing consumption in order to facilitate continuing profits. Instead of less is enough, more is more reigns supreme. Something has to give...

I bet you live in a house that used to be green fields, or forests, or marshes.

The young aren't having babies, excess deaths are continuing due to the what the Tories have done to our National Health Service, and life expectancy is dropping.

However the Brexit Tory government is filling the gap with record high levels of immigration which they told Tory and Brexit voters they would reduce.

(Because they think Tory voters and Brexit voters are stupid and will keep voting for them anyway.)

The birth rate is falling but the population is still increasing (just increasing slightly less)

The rate of increase is slowing

Hope that makes sense.

I think we will reach a point in the not too distant future where we will need to admit that we cant keep multiplying like we are. It's like a pyramid scheme to prop up the economy but eventually bust the environment etc

The ONS predicts the birth rate will be 10.8 million births and 10.3 million deaths by 2036 so, no decrease in population.

This first paragraph. An enormous older population and fewer working. And a care crisis. But like with the pandemic, nothing is planned for.

Where did read it’s falling? A quick google would tell you it’s not. What’s the context of your question?

And I bet you do too.

That doesn't mean greedy developers should be buying up wholesale swathes of the countryside to build on.

Enough houses & buildings that could potentially become housing already in existence.

I'm just sad that I probably won't see a revolution in my lifetime.

I had a governing body meeting this week and the Headteacher informed us that she's been on a working group with the DfE making plans for this. They expect schools in the area to be amalgamating in the next 5-10 years as there's just not enough children being born to fill the spaces.

I think we will reach a point in the not too distant future where we will need to admit that we cant keep multiplying like we are. It's like a pyramid scheme to prop up the economy but eventually bust the environment etc

But we are nowhere close to multiplying as we are & the pyramid is turning upside down, that's the issue

Housing- so many families live in two houses due to parents separating. My divorced friend bought a very large 4 bed house and had his kids EOW. Now it’s him and his girlfriend in the same very big house.

All the divorced parents I know, end up with twice as much housing for the family.

Multiply that across the generations and it’s not surprising we’re short of houses.

The population is aging, but not falling. Birth rates are falling, but we're living longer. We're also consuming and occupying more space than ever before - single adults in large houses, kids with 2 bedrooms, couples in family homes for decades after kids are grown. Society has changed, we need to completely rethink how we use our space and resources, but nobody wants to.

People are living much longer and we import ridiculous amounts of people every year onto a small island.

https://www.ft.com/content/bfa1e01e-7d55-4d14-b2bb-efd915bc0382

The Financial times thinks the ONS predictions are just wrong as they haven't updated the changed fertility and mortality rates in their latest model.

So I think it's hard to work out what's predicted - but number of babies and fertility rate has dropped so natural population is set to decline not that far in future- but population will still grow due to immigration.

Birth rates are falling and we have a housing crisis - not mutually exclusive things. People are living longer but also, linked to that, more people than ever before are living in single person households.

@RhubarbGingerJam can't read the article but agree that the forecasts are wrong.

Uk Population is has been growing for the last decade roughly at 1%, the biggest driver has been immigration.

And the government likes immigration despite what nonsense they spout.