Read and think. We're the third largest nation with regards to population. China and India are ahead respectively. However, should the EU ever really gel into a federal state, then it would take the US' place with 457 million. The EU grows mostly by adding countries though and its demographics are rather different than the US'. So, we'll see.
If the US population is growing at a rate of .91% according to the CIA, that's 2.71 million new inhabitants per year.
ReplyDeleteBeing 3rd largest, that's a pretty impressive leap annually. It also means that the US economy is gonna keep on growing to sustain the growth in population. This has horrible implications on energy usage in a well developed economy like that of the United States.
I am not so sure that it will be as disasterous as you are suspecting. We're quite good as a species from avoiding dead ends. ;)
ReplyDeleteI looked at your blog and I have to make a bit of a disagreement there. The Indians - I think - are going to outstrip the Chinese as the 'largest' superpower. That's assuming that both continue to converge with the West. What happens with the Little Emperor Generation will be interesting in China.