Geographical Magazine

One of the world’s most important drivers of change is demographics. The Arab Spring wouldn’t have happened without a dramatic bulge in the number of young men willing to take to the streets. It was the post-war baby boom that sparked social change across Europe and the USA. The rapid growth of urbanisation across sub-Saharan Africa is being fast-tracked by the continent’s high fertility rates. This month, we take a close look at one of the biggest changes that the human race has ever undergone - depopulation (see page 50). For the first time since the Black Death in the 1300s, the world is soon to see a drop in human numbers. Quite sensibly, we have been focused on the impending impact of there being more than 10 billion of us on this fragile blue orb.