The demographic impact of the coronavirus one year after being declared a pandemic on 11 March 2020 has been enormous. The picture that emerges is one of significant consequences on the levels and trends of the key components of demographic change: mortality, fertility and migration.
The world is in the midst of the Great Migration Clash, a bitter struggle between those who “
want out” of their countries and those who want others to “
keep out” of their countries. More than
a billion people would like to move permanently to another country and no less than a billion people say fewer or
no immigrants should be allowed to move into their countries.
While the end of life remains the inescapable fate of every man, woman and child, death can be delayed as has been
demonstrated repeatedly throughout human history. Amid the current coronavirus pandemic, a paramount objective is delaying death from Covid-19 for many millions of people across the globe.
It’s an
indisputable fact: the United States leads the world in the number of Covid-19 deaths. As of 15 May, three months after the country’s first confirmed
coronavirus death, the US death toll from the pandemic has reached a remarkable
88,000 deaths. That rising figure is more than double the number of coronavirus deaths of the next highest country, the United Kingdom at
34,000 deaths.
How many COVID-19 deaths will occur before a vaccine becomes available worldwide? As with many seemingly simple questions about an uncertain future, the proper answer to that important query is: “it depends”.
The answer to the critical question of how many immigrants will there be in the future is: far below the number of people wanting to immigrate and far above the number of immigrants wanted. The discrepancy between the two opposing migration “wants” underlies the current divisive migration crisis sweeping the globe.
In addition to its unprecedented
rapid rate of demographic growth during the past 75 years, world population’s distribution across the planet has changed significantly over the past seven decades. The momentous global changes in humanity’s geographic distribution pose serious social, economic, political and environmental challenges and disquieting implications for the future.
What if current fertility rates of countries remain constant for the rest of the 21st century? Under this assumption, the populations of high fertility countries skyrocket while those of most low fertility countries plummet and world population nearly triples in size by the century’s close.
Two, four and eight billion people is the extraordinary doubling and redoubling of the world’s population that occurred in slightly less than a century.
World population, which had grown to 2 billion by 1927, doubled to 4 billion by 1974 and will reach 8 billion by around 2023.
Premarital sex, defined as voluntary sexual intercourse between unmarried persons, is increasing worldwide. While
traditional values,
religious instructions and the
laws of some countries continue to prescribe abstinence until marriage, the rapid societal changes that have occurred across all regions during the past half-century have resulted in the growing prevalence and acceptability of premarital sex.
Most of the world’s women have experienced sexual harassment. Based on available country surveys, it is estimated that no less than 75 percent of the world’s
2.7 billion women aged 18 years and older, or at least 2 billion women, have been sexually harassed (Figure 1).
Recent elections around the world have clearly shown growing
public support for candidates and political parties advocating the deportation of migrants and stricter restrictions on immigration, including halting it altogether. At the same time,
opposition, challenges and
resistance to deportations and
immigration restrictions have become more widespread, visible and vocal.
Are humanoid robots or
androids a solution to declining and aging populations? Given the prospects of demographic decline and population aging coupled with growing opposition to immigration,
countries are increasingly turning to and
investing in advanced robotics and androids to address shrinking workforces and rising numbers of elderly.
While rapid population growth may be the defining feature of the 20
th century, with world population nearly quadrupling from 1.6 to 6.1 billion, the hallmark of the 21
st century is likely to be population aging.
Global food extremes of chronic undernourishment and obesity have brought about a bipolar world of hundreds of millions of underfed and overfed people. Of the world’s population of 7.5 billion the proportions suffering from
chronic undernourishment and those afflicted by
obesity are similar, approximately 11 percent or together about 1.6 billion people. However, as with most global averages, the levels of both chronic undernourishment and obesity vary enormously among regions and across and within countries.
A significant global demographic change having far-reaching consequences yet receiving scant attention is the rise of one-person households.
Growing numbers of men, women and even children in every major region of the world are joining international streams of unauthorized migration. This global movement of
humanity’s desperate is taking place despite walls, fences, barriers, guards, patrol ships, warnings and nativist political rhetoric. Governments of origin, transit and destination countries are struggling on how best to manage unauthorized migration flows.