The world we and our ancestors have lived in for the past three centuries is ending and we are entering a new one. Many things we have taken for granted will no longer be true. The reason, as a new report from the Lancet makes clear, is that 300 years of steady and often rapid population growth has ended. By 2100, the global population will have peaked and started to decline.
This is a historical turning point. Also, it is not simply a matter of a static or (actually) declining world population – the nature of that population will also change. It will be much older. The report estimates there will be twice as many people over 80 as under five – nearly 900 million over-80s worldwide.
