The world population grew by 75 million people over the past year and on New Year’s Day it will stand at more than 8 billion people, according to figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Thursday.

The worldwide growth rate in the past year was just under 1%. At the start of 2024, 4.3 births and two deaths are expected worldwide every second, according to the Census Bureau figures.

The growth rate for the United States in the past year was 0.53%, about half the worldwide figure. The U.S. added 1.7 million people and will have a population on New Year’s Day of 335.8 million people.

        • F_Haxhausen
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          56 months ago

          Yeah. There was a guy calling everyone a eugenicist for simply saying we need less people to help bring down climate change.

          He said that was just a ploy.

          I can’t wait to not exist, for many reasons. But people like that is at the top of my list.

          • @frezik@midwest.social
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            6 months ago

            If you want the population to decline, then there has to be some kind of filter for who gets to live or reproduce. Even if it’s 100% random with no racial/religious/whatever bias involved, you must still remove a significant chunk of people, or at least cause them not to reproduce. That’s the best case scenario. Even trying it is almost asking for someone to co-opt it for their fascist goals; it almost certainly won’t be 100% random, and bias towards specific populations will occur. It almost certainly will devolve into eugenics.

            The Earth can support this many people. We know how. What it can’t do is support it with utility monster billionaires around.

        • Cosmoooooooo
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          266 months ago

          All the most habitable spots are already taken. The only spots left have major disadvantages.

          You can’t just ‘spread out’ all the people. It doesn’t work that way. Not everyone wants to live on a cliffside road in Colorado, Idaho, Montana, or wherever. Nor is it advantageous in any way to do so.

          • @remotelove@lemmy.ca
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            -156 months ago

            Nor is it advantageous in any way to do so.

            Bullshit. Who else would want to go to such a place? Weird living conditions just take a bit of time to get used to and nobody is going to bother you.

        • @bitwaba@lemmy.world
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          96 months ago

          All the efficiencies for transportation and infrastructure are possible because of big cities. One of the biggest contributors to us getting climate change under control will be our ability to leverage the most amount of green energy policies for the least amount of resources.

        • @originalfrozenbanana@lemm.ee
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          46 months ago

          Which would require far more energy to support. Concentration means easier logistics, less transportation, and less overall resources required

    • @CompostMaterial@lemmy.world
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      46 months ago

      To put in perspective, the population in 1980 was about 4.5bln. So we could erase almost half the global population and still have a workforce like 1980. 8 BILLION is way more than ever needed to exist (at the same time).

  • Kokesh
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    206 months ago

    I hope the birth rate declines. Too many people fucking up everything.

    • @werefreeatlast@lemmy.world
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      26 months ago

      Guns is the solution! They trim the upper middle class. You know, keep some scraps for the rest of the middle class. Is that how it works? Because I recall as a poor kid that there was no need to lock the door…what someone wants to steal your shoes?

  • @TenderfootGungi@lemmy.world
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    46 months ago

    Leading economies all have low birth rates. I believe the US is still below our replacement rate without immigration. Where are populations growing fast? This article does not say. My guess is low cost of living areas like third world counties?

    • @rosymind@leminal.space
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      36 months ago

      In “3rd world” African countries, kids are still often used for labor so it’s beneficial for families to have more children. I believe India has taken over China’s place as the most populated area. There are also countries like Aghanistan, with rulers who have banned birthcontrol - although given the exodus when the U.S. bailed, I don’t know where they stand growth-wise rn