By 2050, three-quarters of the world’s nations will see fertility rates fall to below replacement levels, meaning their populations will be steadily shrinking, a new study predicts.
And by 2100, almost all countries (97%) are expected to have fertility rates below the replacement level of 2.1 children per woman, the same report concludes.
This trend will not happen everywhere all at once. Richer countries will be hit first and hardest by falling birth rates, with poorer nations maintaining higher birth rates. That’s according to researchers at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle.