Billions of people will disappear from the world’s population by the end of the century, according to one Doomsday scenario put forward by academics.
Analysis recently published shows the number of human beings will peak around 2040 at around 8.5billion.
But then over the next six decades the number will drastically fall as a result of the world’s poorest countries “breaking free of poverty”.
Researchers believe as a result of having access to better education and healthcare, as well as clean energy, the population will dip to around six billion by the time calendars flip to 2100.
Per Espen Stoknes, Earth4All project lead and director of the Centre for Sustainability at Norwegian Business School behind the research, said: “We know rapid economic development in low-income countries has a huge impact on fertility rates.
“Fertility rates fall as girls get access to education and women are economically empowered and have access to better healthcare.”
The scenario, known as the Giant Leap, reads: “The impacts of all such improvements in resource efficiency, taken together, are wide ranging.
“They also have a substantial impact on global population capacity, described in detail below.
“In general, according to the Earth4All simulation, immediate, ambitious policy intervention could significantly improve all the listed dimensions of resource efficiency, enabling better results to be achieved by 2050 rather than 2100.
“Rapid action and results are even more important when considering the long-term nature of both demographic and physical processes, and the need for quick action highlighted by the precarious conditions of the natural planetary boundaries.
“Furthermore, these results are achievable without reducing the population living standards.
“In fact…improved resource efficiency allows for better living standards to become achievable on a global scale.”
The analysis uses ten world regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa, China and the United States.
Currently, population growth is highest in some nations in Africa, such as Angola, Niger, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria, as well as some Asian countries such as Afghanistan.
The team also deduced overpopulation is not one of the worst issues facing the planet.
Instead it believes the “material footprint levels” among the world’s richest 10 percent which threatens to destabilise our home.
Beniamino Callegari, an Associate Professor from Kristiania and member of the Earth4All modelling team, added: “Few prominent models simulate population growth, economic development and their connections simultaneously.
“If we assume these countries adopt successful policies for economic development then we can expect population to peak sooner rather than later.”
