Is it true that there are more children on earth today than older people?
In France we currently find the opposite: more people over 65 (21% of the population) than children under 15 (17.5%). The situation is the same in the other EU countries due to two combined population aging factors: falling fertility and longer lifespans. But in the rest of the world, there are indeed more children than older people. In Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean, there are 2.5 children under 15 for every 1 adult 65 years or over. The imbalance is most marked in Africa, where the current ratio is 11; that is, 40.1% of the population is made up of children under 15 and only 3.6% of people over 65. Even in North America, Australia, and New Zealand, regions that completed the demographic transition process some time ago, there are slightly more children than older people.Overall, while only 10% of earth’s human beings at the present time are older people, 25% are children. This explains why the world population will continue to increase in the next fifty years, and why it would be misguided to think that demographic growth could come to halt in the near future.