The United Nations estimates 8.2 billion people on Earth, but new research suggests that billions of people may have been overlooked in the world’s population numbers. Credit: Carlos Castila, Shutterstock.
Is it just us, or this planet a bit Too much Are you comfortable?
The United Nations calmly reports that around 8.2 billion people live on the planet, but new research suggests they may have missed the mark.
Yes, you read it correctly. It’s not a typo. It’s not a rounding error. Billions.
Millions of missing – or billions?
According to the paper published in Nature By Finnish researchers Josiasláng-ritter His team at Aalto University, rural population all over the world It could have been Roughly Undercount. Their horrifying conclusion? even Most accurate The dataset underestimates rural populations by half.
“The contradictions are huge,” the researchers revealed. And these are not trivial characters. They are people who grow your food, grow cotton, and live in parts of a world where digital maps barely blink.
This fresh figure fling suggests real people’s possibilities Easy little guy Official tally.
Thus, the United Nations relies on census reports and a tidy statistical grid, but in this new way, the world may be far more full than we think.
Overcrowded panic or a dream of a population pipe?
Professor Jonathan Kennedy of Queen Mary University in London; Guardianclaims that this is not just a game of numbers.
“overpopulation” “is rarely about numbers. They reflect the power struggle over whether life is important, who is a burden or a threat, and ultimately what the future looks like.”
In other words, fear of too many people often hides the dark. Or, in other words, If you’re worried about overpopulation, Kennedy thinks I might be racist.
But Professor Kennedy also emphasizes that while headlines cried out “population crisis,” the real story is more subtle. Yes, the numbers may rise until the 2080s, but it’s downhill – and do not have In a good way. We are heading towards the economic future, with the declining numbers of births, desperate for young workers.
Of course, musk intervenes
Who else will offer the hot take except Elon Musk? In a 2021 tweet, SpaceX boss warned:
“Population collapse could be the biggest risk to the future of civilization.”
Once he may have a point. Are there fewer workers, more retirees, and enough people to wipe out the world’s mass bottom? There are very few sci-fi utopias we have promised.
Migration: The Unpleasant Truth
This is where it gets juicy. The most panicked people about the population often warn, Kennedy warns Really I’m worried about immigrants.
“They are worried that large-scale migration will change their country so much that it will not disappear,” he writes. “But the cold, hard truth is that for decades, our shrinking, aging society desperately needs these newcomers to pay taxes and work in healthcare and social care.”
translation? If immigrants work and pay taxes, they may be pension savings tomorrow.
Kennedy said, “This vision of the future can be unsettling for some, but the alternative is much worse.”
A real crisis? It’s not the numbers themselves, but choose how you respond to them.
Factbox: Population panics with numbers
- 2 Billion: UN’s current official global population estimate
- + billions? :Revised estimates using a new rural data model
- 50%: The extent to which rural population is lurking
- 2080s: When global The population is predicted peakit will decline
Counting people may sound boring, but that’s nothing. If these researchers are right, the planet is not just full, it’s bursting with seams. But is it a burden or a bonus? That’s a number we haven’t done well yet.
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