Latest news with #population
Yahoo
14 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Population likely lower than data shows
There could be a drop of 3% in Guernsey's recorded population when "IT system changes and data validation tasks" are completed and island statistics are restored, the States has said. It added it was because the number of people who moved away from Guernsey was "likely" to have been understated in the past, which was identified by a new States computer system. The States said work was continuing to restore quarterly publications of population, employment and earnings figures, but "more time is needed" to ensure statistics were accurate. It added a "series of IT system changes and data validation tasks need to be completed and thoroughly tested before publication can be resumed". More news stories for Guernsey Listen to the latest news for Guernsey The new IT systems in the Revenue Service had "brought to light" the data issues in the Rolling Electronic Census, it said. "These issues are likely to have caused historical outward migration statistics, i.e. the number of people moving away from Guernsey, to be understated," it said. The States added: "While it is normal for these statistics to be restated by small amounts each time they are issued after new information comes to light, it is now expected that the next publication could include a downward revision of the total population of up to 3% - a larger revision than is normal." It said previously published employment and earnings statistics should be unaffected and "accuracy of statistics remains the priority". "It is important that the public can have confidence in the published statistics. "Since it is taking longer than anticipated to apply and validate all the necessary changes, additional resources have been applied to this work to accelerate it," the States added. The latest recorded population of Guernsey, recorded for December 2023 and published in October 2024, was 64,781 - which marked an increase of more than 1%. Follow BBC Guernsey on X and Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to More on this story Guernsey population increases by 1% Related internet links States of Guernsey
BBC News
15 hours ago
- Business
- BBC News
Last published data "overstated" Guernsey population
There could be a drop of 3% in Guernsey's recorded population when "IT system changes and data validation tasks" are completed and island statistics are restored, the States has added it was because the number of people who moved away from Guernsey was "likely" to have been understated in the past, which was identified by a new States computer States said work was continuing to restore quarterly publications of population, employment and earnings figures, but "more time is needed" to ensure statistics were added a "series of IT system changes and data validation tasks need to be completed and thoroughly tested before publication can be resumed". The new IT systems in the Revenue Service had "brought to light" the data issues in the Rolling Electronic Census, it said."These issues are likely to have caused historical outward migration statistics, i.e. the number of people moving away from Guernsey, to be understated," it States added: "While it is normal for these statistics to be restated by small amounts each time they are issued after new information comes to light, it is now expected that the next publication could include a downward revision of the total population of up to 3% - a larger revision than is normal."It said previously published employment and earnings statistics should be unaffected and "accuracy of statistics remains the priority"."It is important that the public can have confidence in the published statistics. "Since it is taking longer than anticipated to apply and validate all the necessary changes, additional resources have been applied to this work to accelerate it," the States latest recorded population of Guernsey, recorded for December 2023 and published in October 2024, was 64,781 - which marked an increase of more than 1%.
The Guardian
19 hours ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
After the Spike by Dean Spears and Michael Geruso review – the truth about population
As a member of the 8.23 billion-strong human community, you probably have an opinion on the fact that the global population is set to hit a record high of 10 billion within the next few decades. Chances are, you're not thrilled about it, given that anthropogenic climate change is already battering us and your morning commute is like being in a hot, jiggling sardine-tin. Yet according to Dean Spears and Michael Geruso, academics at the University of Texas, what we really need to be worried about is depopulation. The number of children being born has been declining worldwide for a couple of hundred years. More than half of countries, including India, the most populous nation in the world, now have birthrates below replacement levels. While overall population has been rising due to declining (mainly infant) mortality, we'll hit a peak soon before falling precipitously. This apex and the rollercoaster drop that follows it is the eponymous 'spike'. Most people's lives today are better than they ever were in human history, thanks to the progress, prosperity and brilliant ideas that have come with all those people. The more of us there are, the more human ingenuity there is – 'the ultimate renewable resource'. Spears and Geruso argue that future people who live alongside only a couple of billion others will have significantly worse lives than we have today. Stabilisation, not depopulation, they argue, is the right path for humanity. For that to happen, we need to be having more babies. After the Spike knocks down assumptions like skittles. Population fearmongers from Malthus to Paul Ehrlich are refuted, and evidence laid out to show what worldwide fertility is not linked to: changes in wealth, the invention of contraception or women's rights. Nor can government policies that force people to have, or not have, children do much to change long-term trends. This is as true for China's one-child policy as it is for Ceaușescu's banning of abortion in Romania, which only had short-term effects. Even when non-coercive governments support parents with childcare and comparatively generous parental leave, as in Sweden, these policies have not shifted the needle. Sweden will start to shrink in 2051. The strongest commonsense belief the authors tackle is the idea that lower birthrates are a good thing because the planet is burning and more people means worse climate change. In fact, climate change is such an urgent issue that depopulation will kick in far too late to make any serious impact. Not only that, but the difference between the contribution to climate change made by the current population versus the population at the top of the spike is not significant. Depopulation won't help the climate, then, but it will mean that there are far fewer of us left to deal with part two of cleaning up humanity's mess on Earth: removing excess greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. Creating a good life – whether that's finding cures for disease or ways to reverse environmental damage – relies on the ideas, work and progress produced by large, interconnected societies. Why, then, are we increasingly choosing to have fewer children? The answer is likely to be a combination of cultural, biological, economic and social factors, but the best unifying theory in After the Spike is to be found in a satirical headline from the Onion: 'Study Finds American Women Delaying Motherhood Because the Whole Thing Blows'. As life on Earth has come to offer more and more rich and interesting options for how to spend our time, the opportunity cost of parenting has become increasingly less attractive. There are now more ways to make a meaningful life with fewer or no kids, even if you did want them, as gen Z is well aware. If we agree that we ought to make life good for our descendants, and that this means supporting a stable, sizeable human population, how can we achieve this? The solution proposed by Spears and Geruso is no less than a total restructuring of society around care, in which parenting is so well supported socially, culturally, economically and medically that it is seen as a joy, not a relentless struggle. Were this to have been my reality a decade ago, I might have had the football team of tumbling, laughing babies I sometimes feel a pang for. Whether humanity can achieve anything like it in time to avert depopulation seems doubtful, but if there's one thing After the Spike leaves us with, it's the impulse to back ourselves. Sign up to Inside Saturday The only way to get a look behind the scenes of the Saturday magazine. Sign up to get the inside story from our top writers as well as all the must-read articles and columns, delivered to your inbox every weekend. after newsletter promotion After the Spike: The Risks of Global Depopulation and the Case for People by Dean Spears and Michael Geruso is published by Bodley Head (£20). To order a copy go to Delivery charges may apply.
Bloomberg
a day ago
- Politics
- Bloomberg
India Should Know How Many People It Has. It Doesn't
India may have 1.4 billion people, or thereabouts. It's probably the world's most populous country, and may have overtaken China in 2023. We can't say for sure, because it doesn't know how many it governs, where they live, or how many are citizens. A census has not been conducted since 2011, the registration of births and deaths was minimal for decades, and it's rare to have detailed documents. In states like Bihar, this problem is magnified. Home to 130 million but with a human development score similar to Haiti or the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Bihar is crucial to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's national hold on power. So it isn't surprising that politics in India right now revolves entirely around the state's election in the fall.
Free Malaysia Today
a day ago
- Business
- Free Malaysia Today
China to offer childcare subsidies in bid to boost birth rate
China's population has declined for three consecutive years. (EPA Images pic) BEIJING : China's government will offer subsidies to parents to the tune of US$500 per child under the age of three per year, Beijing's state media said today, as the world's second most populous nation faces a looming demographic crisis. The country's population has declined for three consecutive years, with United Nations demography models predicting it could fall from 1.4 billion today to 800 million by 2100. The nationwide subsidies apply retroactively from Jan 1, Beijing's state broadcaster CCTV said, citing a decision by the ruling Communist Party and the state council, China's cabinet. 'This is a major nationwide policy aimed at improving public wellbeing,' CCTV said. 'It provides direct cash subsidies to families across the country, helping to reduce the burden of raising children,' it added. There were just 9.54 million births in China last year, half the number than in 2016, the year it ended its one-child policy, which was in place for more than three decades. The population declined by 1.39 million last year, and China lost its crown as the world's most populous country to India in 2023. Marriage rates are also at record low levels, with many young couples put off having babies by high child-rearing costs and career concerns. 'Groundwork for the future' Analysts warned that the subsidies alone would not reverse China's population decline, nor boost its long-standing domestic spending slump. 'The sums involved are too small to have a near-term impact on the birth rate or consumption,' Zichun Huang, China economist at Capital Economics, said. 'But the policy does mark a major milestone in terms of direct handouts to households and could lay the groundwork for more fiscal transfers in future.' Many local governments have already rolled out subsidies to encourage childbirth. In March, Hohhot, the capital of China's northern Inner Mongolia region, began offering residents up to 100,000 yuan per newborn for couples with three or more children, while first and second children will be eligible for 10,000 and 50,000 yuan subsidies. In Shenyang, in northeastern Liaoning province, local authorities give families who have a third child 500 yuan per month until the child turns three. Hangzhou, in eastern Zhejiang province, offers a one-time payment of 25,000 yuan to couples who have a third child. More than 20 provincial-level administrations in the country now offer childcare subsidies, according to official data. Premier Li Qiang vowed to provide childcare subsidies during the government's annual work report in March. China's shrinking population is also ageing fast, sparking worries about the future of the country's pension system. There were nearly 310 million people aged 60 and over in 2024.
