8,000 Million

The planet has reached 8,000 million inhabitants this November.

The figure is unimaginable, but its magnitude can be measured by remembering that in 1950 there were barely 2,500 people on earth.

Furthermore: the last 1 billion people have been born in the 12 years from 2010 to 2022, and although the rate of growth has slowed, the population will increase by another 1 billion in the next 15 years, until it reaches in 2080 a peak of 10.4 billion.

The evolution of economic and social development has enabled billions of human beings to be lifted out of poverty in recent decades.

In fact, half of the current world population has more than 12 dollars a day for their maintenance and another 2,000 million will reach that security cushion by 2035.

But it is evident that if the birth rate is not drastically reduced,

These figures present the international political community with a phenomenal challenge: to ensure the necessary livelihoods for the entire population and at the same time change the demographic trend until a stable balance between deaths and births is achieved.

The runaway growth of the population forces a demographic transition that guarantees sustainable levels.

The first problem lies in the unequal distribution of population growth.

80% is concentrated in developing countries.

India will overtake China as the world's most populous country next year, and one in three people on the planet will live in one of those two countries.

China proves that the best birth control instrument is material progress and increased wealth.

The iron policy of the only child managed to contain a skyrocketing demography associated with poverty.

Given the forecast that in 2035 those over 60 years of age will reach 30% of the population, China lifted the restrictions.

But it did not work: although it already allows three children to be had, it has ranked among the countries with the lowest fertility: 1.3 children per woman, the same demographic pattern as rich Western countries.

Material progress and family planning are the keys to demographic control, and the policies aimed at achieving it are focused on improving the living conditions and freedom of women.

While in rich countries women have fewer children than they want, in the poorest the opposite occurs: lack of freedom, economic dependency and the absence of family planning make them have more children than they want.

The biggest population bomb is in Africa, particularly in the sub-Saharan region, where the population is expected to double in the next 30 years.

Education and development are the only tools that can slow down the growth of an already huge planet.