Demographics

The recently released United Nations World Population Prospects: 2022 forecasts a future with fewer people in 2100 than there were in 2000.  read more »

As stories of new migration patterns and movement across Australia’s cities and regions abound, updated population data shows that what initially appeared to be a pandemic-induced blip is instead the beginning of a reversal of a long-term trend.  read more »

Welcome to the future of American politics. The US population is changing in major ways that will likely alter the balance in politics and economics to the advantage of Republican-leaning red states, as well as suburbs and exurbs across the country.  read more »

Since the beginning of the 19th century, world population has skyrocketed. According to a summary of estimates by the US Census Bureau, the world population was about 970 million in 1800 (midpoint of the high and low estimate). The Census Bureau site indicates that population usually increased in previous centuries, though was at an all-time high in 1800.  read more »

The latest final births data (2020) from the Center for Disease Control indicates that the US total fertility rate continued to decline and has reached a record low. The total fertility rate is the number of children that the average woman has during her child-bearing years. In 2020, the US rate was 1.64, well below the 2.10 replacement rate.  read more »

The 2022 edition of Demographia World Urban Areas has been released, which provides revised population estimates based on the 2020 round of censuses, though some censuses have been delayed due to the pandemic (such as in India and Bangladesh).  read more »

It’s popular today to talk about the “common good” or the “public good.” But one of the implications of the shift to the negative world is that Christians need to start becoming much more concerned about their private good – the good of their own families, churches, and communities.  read more »

While topics like “The Great Resignation” and “the labor shortage” have gained traction in popular discourse, much of these discussions overly simplify trends that have been brewing for decades.  read more »

With inflation soaring, trust in governments plummeting, and the global economy teetering on the brink of collapse, one might expect to see the masses out in the streets, calling for the heads of their rulers. But instead of rage and rebellion, we mostly see apathy. Rather than getting radicalised, people are dropping out.  read more »

Like all physical conflicts, the current war in Ukraine is also an ongoing war of narratives, in this case one making heavy use of visual imagery.  As they have played out, the threads of these narratives have a telling sequence of their own, revealing the tragic arc of most wars as they confront the ultimate—and ultimately gendered and classed—victims of modern warfare:  women, children, the elderly, the poor and working classes.  read more »