Around 1800 we were still about a billion people in the world. In 1927, according to statistics from the United Nations, two billion – and then it quickly went up: in 1974 already four billion, and then in almost ten yearly steps up to eight billion people today. And at the moment there is no end in sight: two people are born in the world every second.
That’s eight billion chances, says Nicole Langenbach, spokeswoman for the German Foundation for World Population. “It’s not the number of people” that’s the problem, “but their behavior.” So “our consumption, our consumption”. In fact, however, population growth would slow down. “For the first time this year we have a growth rate below one percent.” In the Global North in particular, birth rates are falling and societies are struggling with aging. Langenbach is certain that education and enlightenment will help to ensure that advances in birth control will also be recorded in sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia in the future. “Africa is now at 4.3 children per woman. In the 1970s it was six children per woman and sometimes more.”
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