What does it mean if a country is experiencing a negative natural increase?
The necessary decrease in population size is most unlikely to come about voluntarily. Those few countries where the birthrate is slightly below replacement level have generally become quite concerned and some have attempted to raise it again. No nation or cultural group likes to believe that it is dwindling in size. No country wants to feel that it is losing population and that its own people might soon be replaced by fecund foreigners who are clearly all too ready to move into its relatively “empty” spaces. Some countries are moving to defend borders. A decrease in world population will be peaceful only if it affects everyone, and not just the few highly advanced countries where it is found at present. Rapid reduction in population size is necessary to prevent disaster, but many cultures still value high fertility levels; generations may be required to change these attitudes. These generations we do not have. Most people in the population studies field assume that individual control o
