This table may contain original research or unverified claims. Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (September 2007)

Population decline is the reduction over time in a region's census. It can be caused for several reasons; notable ones include sub-replacement fertility (along with limited immigration), heavy emigration, disease, famine, and war. Image File history File links Emblem-important. ... Image:1870 census Lindauer Weber 01. ... Sub-replacement fertility is a fertility rate that is not high enough to replace an areas population. ... A memorial statue in Hanko, Finland, commemorating the thousands of emigrants who left the country to start a new life in the United States Emigration is the act and the phenomenon of leaving ones native country or region to settle in another. ... This article is about the medical term. ... <nowiki>Insert non-formatted text hereBold text</nowiki>A famine is a social and economic crisis that is commonly accompanied by widespread malnutrition, starvation, epidemic and increased mortality. ... For other uses, see War (disambiguation). ...

Prior to the 20th century, population decline was mostly observed due to disease. The Black Death in Europe, the arrival of Old World diseases to the Americas, the tsetse fly invasion of the Waterberg Massif in South Africa, and the Great Irish Famine (1845–1849) have all caused sizable regional population declines. In modern times, the AIDS epidemic has caused declines in the population of some African countries. Less frequently, population declines are caused by genocide or mass execution; for example, in the 1970s, the population of Cambodia went through a period of decline due to wide scale executions by the Khmer Rouge regime. This article concerns the mid fourteenth century pandemic. ... The Old World consists of those parts of Earth known to Europeans, Asians, and Africans before the voyages of Christopher Columbus; it includes Europe, Asia, and Africa (collectively known as Africa-Eurasia), plus surrounding islands. ... World map showing the Americas CIA political map of the Americas in an equal-area projection The Americas are the lands of the New World, consisting of the continents of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions. ... Binomial name Glossina morsitans The tsetse fly, Glossina morsitans, is a fly (order Diptera) that eats blood from animals, including humans. ... River gorge in the Lapalala Wilderness, Waterberg, South Africa, showing horizontal sandstone layering. ... Great Irish Famine may also refer to Great Irish Famine (1740-1741). ... For other uses, see AIDS (disambiguation). ... In epidemiology, an epidemic (from [[Latin language] epi- upon + demos people) is a disease that appears as new cases in a given human population, during a given period, at a rate that substantially exceeds what is expected, based on recent experience (the number of new cases in the population during... For other uses, see Genocide (disambiguation). ... Execution is a synonym for the actioning of something, of putting something into effect. ... The 1970s decade refers to the years from 1970 to 1979, also called The Seventies. ... Some of the Khmer Rouge leaders during their period in power. ...

According to 2002 reports by the United Nations Population Division^[1] and the US Census Bureau,^[2] population decline is occurring today in some regions. According to the UN, below-replacement fertility is expected in 75% of developed world by the year 2050. The US Census Bureau notes that the 74 million people added to the world's population in 2002 were fewer than the high of 87 million people added in 1989-1990. The annual growth rate was 1.2 percent, down from the high of 2.2 percent in 1963-64. UN and U.N. redirect here. ... The United States Census Bureau (officially Bureau of the Census as defined in Title ) is a part of the United States Department of Commerce. ... Sub-replacement fertility is a fertility rate that is not high enough to replace an areas population. ... 2050 (MML) will be a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

"Census Bureau projections show this slow-down in population growth continuing into the foreseeable future," stated the Bureau's brief on the findings. "Census Bureau projections suggest that the level of fertility in many countries will drop below replacement level before 2050... In 1990 the world's women, on average, were giving birth to 3.3 children over their lifetimes. By 2002 the average was 2.6." Of course, this value still ensures the continuing rapid growth of the human population as a whole, even if some regions may decline. 2050 (MML) will be a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the year. ... Map of countries by population density (See List of countries by population density. ...

Sometimes the term underpopulation is applied in the context of a specific economic system. It does not relate to carrying capacity, and is not a term in opposition to overpopulation, which deals with the total possible population that can be sustained by available food, water, sanitation and other infrastructure. "Underpopulation" is usually defined as a state in which a country's population has declined too much to support its current economic system. Thus the term has nothing to do with the biological aspects of carrying capacity, but is an artificial term employed to imply that the transfer payment schemes of some developed countries might fail once the population declines to a certain point. An example would be if retirees were supported through a social security system which does not invest savings, and then a large emigration movement occurred. In this case, the younger generation may not be able to support the older generation. Underpopulation is usually defined as when a countrys population has declined too much to support its current economic system. ... Map of countries by population density (See List of countries by population density. ... The equilibrium maximum of the population of an organism is known as the ecosystems carrying capacity for that organism. ... Social security primarily refers to social welfare service concerned with social protection, or protection against socially recognized conditions, including poverty, old age, disability, unemployment and others. ...

By specific countries

Today emigration and sub-replacement fertility rates are the principal issues related to any regional population decline. A number of nations today are experiencing population decline, stretching from North Asia (Japan) through to Eastern Europe through Russia including Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Georgia, Armenia, Bosnia, Croatia, Slovenia, and Hungary. Sub-replacement fertility is a fertility rate that is not high enough to replace an areas population. ... This article is about the country of Bosnia and Herzegovina. ...

The population of former Soviet Republics, with the exception of Muslim majority nations and oil rich Azerbaijan, is falling due to health factors and low replacement. Much of Eastern Europe has lost population due to migration to Western Europe. In Eastern Europe and Russia, natality fell abruptly after the end of Communism. Together these nations occupy over 8 million square miles and are home to over 400 million people (less than six percent of the world population), but if current trends continue, more of the developed world and some of the developing world could join this trend. There is also a collection of Hadith called Sahih Muslim A Muslim (Arabic: مسلم, Persian: Mosalman or Mosalmon Urdu: مسلمان, Turkish: Müslüman, Albanian: Mysliman, Bosnian: Musliman) is an adherent of the religion of Islam. ... Statistical regions of Europe as delineated by the United Nations (UN definition of Eastern Europe marked red):  Northern Europe  Western Europe  Eastern Europe  Southern Europe Pre-1989 division between the West (grey) and Eastern Bloc (orange) superimposed on current borders: Russia (dark orange), other countries formerly part of the USSR... With the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991, the Russian Federation became an independent country. ...

Many nations in Western Europe today would have declining populations if it were not for international immigration. Some think that there will be underpopulation in Japan by 2014; Japan's situation is related to low replacement and an extremely low level of immigration. 2014 (MMXIV) will be a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

AIDS plays some role in population decline; however, data available suggest that, even with high AIDS mortality, fertility rates in Africa are sufficiently high, so that overpopulation trends continue.^[3] For other uses, see AIDS (disambiguation). ... Map of countries by population density (See List of countries by population density. ...

Country	Year	Population in million	Rate of natural decrease in percent	Main reason for decrease
Belarus	2006	9.7	0.6	declining births and life expectancy
Botswana	2006	1.8	0.1	declining life expectancy HIV/AIDS
Bulgaria	2006	7.7	0.5	declining births and life expectancy
Croatia	2006	4.4	0.2	declining births
Czech Republic	2006	10.3	0.1	declining births
Estonia	2006	1.3	0.2	low number of births
Germany	2007	82.4	0.2	declining births
Hungary	2006	10.1	0.3	declining births
Latvia	2006	2.3	0.5	declining births and life expectancy
Lithuania	2006	3.4	0.4	declining births and life expectancy
Moldova	2006	4.0	0.2	declining births and life expectancy
Poland	2006	38.1	0.07	emigration, declining births
Romania	2006	22.3	0.12	declining births
Russia	2007	142.0	0.3[4]	more deaths than births
Swaziland	2007		0.1	HIV AIDS
Ukraine	2006	46.8	0.8	declining births and life expectancy

^[5] Image File history File links Flag_of_Belarus. ... Population: 10,322,151 (July 2003 est. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Botswana. ... Demographics of Botswana, Data of FAO, year 2005 ; Number of inhabitants in thousands. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Bulgaria. ... Natality, Mortality and Natural increase per 1,000 population in Bulgaria; year 2006, data of the Bulgarian National Statistical Institute. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Croatia. ... Croatia is inhabited mostly by Croats, while minority groups include Serbs, Bosniaks, Hungarians, Italians, Germans, Czechs, Roma people and others. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_Czech_Republic. ... The majority of the 10. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Estonia. ... The name Eesti, or Estonia, could be derived from the word Aestii, the name given by the ancient Germanic people to the peoples living northeast of the Vistula River. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Germany. ... Germanys population pyramid. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Hungary. ... Population change 1961-2003, as reported by FAO, 2005. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Latvia. ... Latvia was ruled by the German knights from the early 13th century until 1561, when they chose to become Polish vassals to protect them against Russian and Swedish aggression. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Lithuania. ... The earliest evidence of inhabitants in present-day Lithuania dates back to 10,000 BC. Between 3,000–2,000 BC, the cord-ware culture people spread over a vast region of eastern Europe, between the Baltic Sea and the Vistula River in the West and the Moscow-Kursk line... Image File history File links Flag_of_Moldova. ... Demographics of Moldova, Data of FAO, year 2005 ; Number of inhabitants in thousands. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Poland. ... The demographics of Poland describe the make-up of the country of Poland. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Romania. ... About 89. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Russia. ... Demography of Russia 1992-2003. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Swaziland. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Ukraine. ... Demographics of Ukraine, Data of FAO, year 2005 ; Number of inhabitants in thousands. ...

Economic consequences

The effects of a declining population can be adverse for an economy which has borrowed extensively for repayment by younger generations; however, a smaller human population has a positive impact on the environment and biodiversity.^[6] Problems associated with declining population are not irreversible or as severe as overpopulation.^[7] In politics and other non-technical contexts, nature or (the) (natural) environment often refers to that part of the natural world that people deem important or valuable, for any reason — economic, aesthetic, philosophical, hedonistic, sentimental, etc. ... Rainforests are among the most biodiverse ecosystems on earth Biodiversity is the variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome or for the entire Earth. ... Map of countries by population density (See List of countries by population density. ...

Economically declining populations can lead to deflation, which has a number of effects. For an agricultural economy the average standard of living, at least in terms of material possessions, will tend to rise as the amount of land and resources per person will be higher. But for many industrial economies, the opposite can be true as those economies often thrive on mortgaging the future by way of social welfare and retirement transfer payments. However, standard of living does not necessarily correlate with quality of life, which may very well increase as the population declines (especially if the area in question is somewhat overpopulated to begin with). “Deflation” redirects here. ... The standard of living refers to the quality and quantity of goods and services available to people and the way these services and goods are distributed within a population. ... ... In political science and economics, a transfer payment is a payment of money from a government or any other organization to an individual, a group or another order of government for which no good or service is directly required in return. ... The standard of living refers to the quality and quantity of goods and services available to people and the way these services and goods are distributed within a population. ... This article is about the economic and philosophical concept. ...

The period immediately after the Black Death, for instance, was one of great prosperity, as people had inheritances from many different family members. However that situation was not comparable, as it did not have a continually declining population, but rather a sudden shock, followed by population increase. Predictions of the economic effects from a slow and continuous population decline (i.e. due to low fertility rates) are mainly theoretical since such a phenomenon is a relatively new and unprecedented one.

A declining population due to demographics will also be accompanied by population ageing which can contribute problems for a society. The decade long economic malaise of Japan and Germany is often linked to these demographic problems. The worst case scenario is a situation where the population falls to too low a level to support a current social welfare economic system, which is more likely to occur with a rapid decline than with a slower one. Population ageing or population aging (see English spelling differences) occurs when the median age of a country or region rises. ... ...

However, the economies of both Japan and Germany both went into recovery around the time their populations just began to decline (2005). In other words, both the total and per capita GDP in both countries grew more rapidly than before 2005. Russia's economy also began to grow rapidly in the past few years, even though its population has been shrinking since 1992-93 (the decline is now accelerating). In addition, many Eastern European countries have been experiencing similar effects to Russia. Such renewed growth calls into question the conventional wisdom that economic growth requires population growth, or that economic growth is impossible during a population decline.

A declining population (regardless of the cause) can also create a labor shortage, which can have a number of positive as well as negative effects. While some labor-intensive sectors of the economy may fail if the shortage is severe enough, others may adequately compensate by increased outsourcing and/or automation. On the positive side, such a shortage increases the demand for labor, which can potentially result in a reduced unemployment rate as well as higher wages. A Labor shortage is an economic condition in which there are insufficient qualified candidates (employees) to fill the market-place demands for employment at any price. ...

A smaller national population can also have geo-strategic effects, but the correlation between population and power is a tenuous one, especially in today's world. In the context of international relations and diplomacy, power (sometimes clarified as international power, national power, or state power) is the ability of one state to influence or control other states. ...

National efforts to reverse declining populations

President Vladimir Putin recently directed Parliament to adopt a 10-year program to stop the sharp decline in Russia's population, principally by offering financial incentives and subsidies to encourage women to have children. Australia currently offers a $4,100 bonus for every baby plus additional fortnightly payments, a free immunization scheme and recently proposed to pay all child care costs for women who want to work. Many European countries, including France, Italy and Poland, have offered some combination of bonuses and monthly payments to families. Some Japanese localities, facing significant population loss, are offering economic incentives. Yamatsuri, a town of 7,000 just north of Tokyo, offers parents $4,600 for the birth of a child and $460 a year for 10 years. The Republic of Singapore has a particularly lavish plan: $3,000 for the first child, $9,000 in cash and savings for the second; and up to $18,000 each for the third and fourth.^[8] Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (Russian: ) (born October 7, 1952) is the current President of the Russian Federation. ... For other uses, see Tokyo (disambiguation). ... National motto: Majulah Singapura (English: Onward, Singapore) National anthem: Majulah Singapura Capital Singapore1 Largest city Singapore1 Official languages English, Mandarin Chinese, Malay, Tamil Government President Prime minister Westminster system (de jure) Dominant-party system (de facto) Sellapan Rama Nathan Lee Hsien Loong Independence - From Malaysia August 9, 1965 Area  - Total...

Alternative concept relative to skills

Sometimes the concept of population decline is applied where there has been considerable ex-migration of skilled professionals. In such a case, the government may have ceased to reward or value certain skills (e.g. science, medicine and engineering), and sectors of the economy such as health care and technology may go into decline. Such characterizations have been made of Italy and Russia in the period starting about 1990.^{[citation needed]} This article is about the year. ...

Further information: Brain drain

This article is about the emigration term. ...

See also

• Overpopulation
• Sub-replacement fertility
• List of countries and territories by fertility rate

Map of countries by population density (See List of countries by population density. ... Sub-replacement fertility is a fertility rate that is not high enough to replace an areas population. ... Map of countries and territories by fertility rate Graph of Total Fertility Rates vs. ...

References

To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Map of countries by population density (See List of countries by population density. ... Map of countries by population density (See List of countries by population density. ...

External links

• Population Research Institute
• BBC Report 2004: World population growth 'falling'
• 2002 Revision of the official United Nations population estimates and projections
• The "End of species" hypothesis Does demographic decline mark the end of humanity's life cycle? May ET civilizations follow the same path?