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Demographic transition
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===Stage five=== {{See also|Population aging|Aging of Europe|Aging of Japan|Evolutionary psychology}} [[File:Portugal population pyramid.svg|thumb|Population pyramid of [[Demographics of Portugal|Portugal]] in 2023 (Stage five).]] [[File:Belarus_2023_population_pyramid.svg|thumb|Population pyramid of [[Demographics of Belarus|Belarus]] in 2023 (Stage five).]] [[File:World population (UN).svg|thumb|right|upright=1.35|United Nation's population projections by location.<br /> Note the vertical axis is [[Logarithmic scale|logarithmic]] and represents millions of people.]] The original Demographic Transition model has just four stages, but additional stages have been proposed. Both more-fertile and less-fertile futures have been claimed as a Stage Five. Some countries have [[sub-replacement fertility]] (that is, below 2.1β2.2 children per woman). Replacement fertility is generally slightly higher than 2 (the level which replaces the two parents, achieving equilibrium) both because boys are born more often than girls (about 1.05β1.1 to 1), and to compensate for deaths prior to full reproduction. Many European and East Asian countries now have higher death rates than birth rates. [[Population aging]] and [[population decline]] may eventually occur, assuming that the fertility rate does not change and sustained mass immigration does not occur. Using data through 2005, researchers have suggested that the negative relationship between development, as measured by the [[Human Development Index]] (HDI), and birth rates had reversed at very high levels of development. In many countries with very high levels of development, fertility rates were approaching two children per woman in the early 2000s.<ref name="Nature" /><ref>{{Citation | title= The best of all possible worlds? | url = https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2009/08/06/the-best-of-all-possible-worlds | newspaper = The Economist | date = 6 August 2009}}.</ref> However, fertility rates declined significantly in many very high development countries between 2010 and 2018, including in countries with high levels of [[gender parity]]. The global data no longer support the suggestion that fertility rates tend to broadly rise at very high levels of national development.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last=Gaddy|first=Hampton Gray|date=2021-01-20|title=A decade of TFR declines suggests no relationship between development and sub-replacement fertility rebounds|url=https://www.demographic-research.org/volumes/vol44/5/|journal=Demographic Research|language=en|volume=44|pages=125β142|doi=10.4054/DemRes.2021.44.5|issn=1435-9871|doi-access=free}}</ref> From the point of view of [[evolutionary biology]], wealthier people having fewer children is unexpected, as [[natural selection]] would be expected to favor individuals who are willing and able to convert plentiful resources into plentiful fertile descendants. This may be the result of a departure from the [[Evolutionary psychology#Environment of evolutionary adaptedness|environment of evolutionary adaptedness]].<ref name=bbc_sure /><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Clarke | first1 = Alice L. | last2 = Low | first2 = Bobbi S. | year = 2001 | title = Testing evolutionary hypotheses with demographic data |journal = Population and Development Review | volume = 27 | issue = 4| pages = 633β660 | doi=10.1111/j.1728-4457.2001.00633.x| url = https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/74296/1/j.1728-4457.2001.00633.x.pdf | hdl = 2027.42/74296| hdl-access = free }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Daly |first1= Martin |last2=Wilson |first2=Margo I |title=Human evolutionary psychology and animal behaviour |journal= Animal Behaviour |url= http://courses.washington.edu/evpsych/Daly%26Wilson-HEP-AB1999.pdf |publisher= Department of Psychology, McMaster University |access-date=14 November 2018 |date=26 June 1998|volume= 57 |issue= 3 |pages= 509β519 |doi= 10.1006/anbe.1998.1027 |pmid= 10196040 |s2cid= 4007382 }}</ref> Most models posit that the birth rate will stabilize at a low level indefinitely. Some dissenting scholars note that the modern environment is exerting [[evolutionary pressure]] for higher fertility, and that eventually due to individual natural selection or cultural selection, birth rates may rise again. Part of the "cultural selection" hypothesis is that the variance in birth rate between cultures is significant; for example, some religious cultures have a higher birth rate that is not accounted for by differences in income.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Kolk|first1=M.|last2= Cownden |first2=D.|last3=Enquist|first3=M. |title=Correlations in fertility across generations: can low fertility persist?|journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences|date=29 January 2014|volume=281|issue=1779|page = 20132561 |doi=10.1098/rspb.2013.2561|pmid= 24478294 |pmc=3924067}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Burger|first1=Oskar|last2= DeLong|first2=John P.|title= What if fertility decline is not permanent? The need for an evolutionarily informed approach to understanding low fertility|journal= Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences|date=28 March 2016|volume=371|issue=1692|page = 20150157|doi= 10.1098/rstb.2015.0157 |pmid= 27022084|pmc= 4822437}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title= Population paradox: Europe's time bomb |url= https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/population-paradox-europes-time-bomb-888030.html |access-date=31 March 2019 |work=The Independent |date=9 August 2008}}</ref> In his book ''Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth?'', [[Eric Kaufmann]] argues that demographic trends point to religious fundamentalists greatly increasing as a share of the population over the next century.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Shall the religious inherit the earth?|url=https://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/shall_the_religious_inherit_the_earth/|date=April 6, 2010|website=Mercator Net|access-date=February 27, 2020|archive-date=June 23, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190623040350/https://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/shall_the_religious_inherit_the_earth/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=McClendon|first=David|date=Autumn 2013|title=Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth? Demography and Politics in the Twenty-First Century, by ERIC KAUFMANN|url=https://academic.oup.com/socrel/article-abstract/74/3/417/1640161|journal=Sociology of Religion|volume=74|issue=3|pages=417β9|doi=10.1093/socrel/srt026}}</ref> [[Jane Falkingham]] of [[Southampton University]] has noted that "We've actually got population projections wrong consistently over the last 50 years... we've underestimated the improvements in mortality... but also we've not been very good at spotting the trends in fertility."<ref name= bbc_sure /> In 2004 a United Nations office published its guesses for global population in the year 2300; estimates ranged from a "low estimate" of 2.3 billion (tending to β0.32% per year) to a "high estimate" of 36.4 billion (tending to +0.54% per year), which were contrasted with a deliberately "unrealistic" illustrative "constant fertility" scenario of 134 trillion (obtained if 1995β2000 fertility rates stay constant into the far future).<ref name= bbc_sure /><ref>{{cite web|title= World Population to 2300|url= https://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/longrange2/WorldPop2300final.pdf |publisher=United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs |access-date= 24 May 2016|date= 2004}}</ref>
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