Give us this day our daily bread by Fiona Evans

Recent BBC reports confirm we are heading for a global shortage of people. Yes, you heard me right…. people!

For the first time ever there are more 65-year-olds on the planet than there are five-year-olds, and as many people turning 80 as there are being born. Japan and Spain are among 23 nations who are predicted to halve their populations by 2100. In the 1950s, women had 4.7 children, that number was down to 2.4 by 2017. When we get to 2.1 children per woman, the population starts to decrease, and the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation predicts that we’ll be at 1.7 by 2100.

Great thing for the planet right? Less people, less CO2 creation. Boom!

What’s going on?

Women globally are having more access to education, which has a direct and downward correlation with the amount of children they have.

The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2013, found “a nation’s competitiveness in the long term depends significantly on whether and how it educates and utilizes its women and if they have the same rights, responsibilities and opportunities as men.“