World population is likely to shrink after mid-century

Understanding potential patterns in future population levels is crucial for anticipating and planning for changing age structures, resource and health-care needs, and environmental and economic landscapes. Future fertility patterns are a key input to estimation of future population size, but they are surrounded by substantial uncertainty and diverging methodologies of estimation and forecasting, leading to important differences in global population projections.

The findings of the study suggests that continued trends in female educational attainment and access to contraception will hasten declines in fertility and slow population growth.

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