Submitted by Taps Coogan on the 16th of August 2019 to The Sounding Line.

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The following graphic, from the Director of Analytics at KIPP Texas Bo McCready, shows the fertility rate of 200 nations around the world going back as far as 1900.

As we have discussed numerous times before, fertility rates have been trending lower in virtually every country around the world. On average, the global fertility rate has fallen from about five children per woman in the 1960s and 70s to just 2.44 today, only modestly above the population neutral rate of 2.1 children. Nonetheless, large differences remain between regions, with fertility rates in Africa by far the highest in the world. In fact, the population of 26 African countries is expected to double by 2050. As the following graphic from Metrocosm highlights, Africa’s share of the global population is expected to jump from slightly over 15% today to over 35% by 2100, its highest share in recorded history. How Africa, already a food importing continent, will meet the needs of its rising populations is likely to be one of the major economic and geopolitical themes of the 21st Century.

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