If humans are reborn when they die, how does Buddhism explain the worlds increasing population?
According to Buddhist cosmology when beings pass away they are reborn into one of thirty-one distinct “planes” or “realms” of existence, of which the human realm is just one. If creatures from other planes are being reborn into the human realm at a rate faster than humans are dying, then we would expect to see a net increase in the human population. The population in our little human corner of the universe may indeed be increasing at the moment, but that’s just a tiny drop in the vast ocean of samsara.
