Words & Numbers
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Insightful weekly commentary on news & current events from economist Antony Davies and political scientist James R. Harrigan.
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The Population Boom Could Save the World
June 21, 2017
In 1798, 95 percent of the world lived in poverty. Today, less than 10 percent do, in spite of the world’s population growing by 700 percent in that same time.
The common thought among young people is that this 700 percent population growth is going to overpopulate the earth. But given the number of people in poverty, it looks like population growth is actually good for poverty – more people means more brains, which means more ideas, inventions, and innovations.
This week on Words and Numbers, Antony Davies and James R. Harrigan talk about how and why the world is improving despite widespread negativity towards the idea of a growing world population, and why that negativity persists regardless of the prosperity we see every day.
Show Notes
- Cataloging Progress from 1975: Using Sears.com's Selection on New Year's Day 2013
- World Poverty Rate to Fall Below 10% for the First Time
- Did We Really Reduce Extreme Poverty by Half in 30 Years?
- World Bank Data on Poverty
- United States Census Bureau on Historical Estimates of World Population
- United States Census Bureau on Well-Being
- Gapminder.org
