A panacea for all problems.

"Fertility rates in nearly all countries will be too low to sustain population levels by the end of the century, and most of the births will be occurring in poorer countries, according to a study." "Over three-quarters of live births will occur in low- and lower-middle-income countries by the end of the century, with more than half taking place in sub-Saharan Africa." "The global fertility rates - the average number of births per woman - has fallen from around 5 children in 1950 to 2.2 in 2021, data show." Reuters. 2.2 is almost the replacement level of fertility. "Replacement level fertility is the level of fertility at which a population exactly replaces itself from one generation to the next." In developed countries it is 2.1 per woman but in countries with high infant mortality rates it can be much higher. NIH. It is also a fact that total fertility rate (TFR) declines with rising levels of education in women. In India, "At the national level, TFR for women having educational status 'illiterate' in 2018 was 3. This is much higher than the literate group which has a TFR of 2.1" TOI. Except for just 4 states, Bihar, Meghalaya, Jharkhand and Uttar Pardesh (UP), all other states of India had a TFR well below 2 in 2024. findeasy.in. India's TFR will collapse to 1.29 in 2050, warned a study in Lancet. This may lead to challenges such as "an aging population, labor force shortages, and potential social imbalances due to gender preferences." TOI. Since April 2023, India is estimated to have surpassed China to become the most populous country in the world and is expected to keep growing for the next few decades. BBC. China's population declined for two years in a row to reach 1.409 billion at the end of 2023, a decrease of 2.08 million from 2022." BBC. "Many hospitals in China have stopped offering newborn delivery services this year," and "the number of maternity hospitals dropped to 793 in 2021 from 807 in 2020." Reuters. But, "In 2023 there were 7.68 million newlyweds in the country, 12.4% more than in the previous year, data shows." BBC. However, China is not unique. In South Korea, "A total of 193,657 couples got married last year, up 1.0% from 191,690 a year earlier and the first increase since 2011." Reuters. Even in the US, "in 2020, the marriage rate was down to 5.1 per 1,000 people," but "by 2022, the number of marriages had reached 6.2 per 1,000 and over 2 million in a year." Number of divorces fell to 2.4 per 1,000 in 2022. CNN. In India, although 86.8% of children in the age group 14-18 years are enrolled in educational institutions, 25% of them "cannot read a Class-2 level text fluently in their regional languages", according to the latest report by the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER). More than half of them struggle with simple division problems. DH. Fewer people will mean less demand for food, housing and natural resources. There will be no shortage of water as Bengaluru is experiencing at present (NDTV). As for an aging population, rapid advances in robotics and Artificial Intelligence may fill the demand for labor. And, fewer people will allow forests to regrow and stop, or even reverse, global warming as happened in the Americas when Europeans began to settle there (India Today). A TFR of 1.29 will be a panacea for all our problems. Those born in 2050 will be lucky.