Publishers Weekly
01/31/2022
Sciubba (The Future Faces of War), an international studies professor at Rhodes College, looks at how population trends shape the world in this sobering survey. According to Sciubba, human population growth is a story of inequality. On average, 240 babies are born every minute in the world’s least developed countries; by contrast, 25 are born per minute in the most developed ones, she writes, and some of the world’s youngest countries are also the most autocratic and poor. In looking at population rates, she covers familiar ground regarding young women in developing countries without access to contraception, and outlines some countrywide measures to balance or increase population, as well, such as the sterilization of Indian men in the late 1960s under Indira Gandhi and the monthly fertility checkups Romanian women were formerly subjected to at their workplaces. The planet’s population is set to continue increasing, Sciubba writes, urging administrations worldwide to enact policies that account for demographic trends, and powerfully concluding that the main question to consider is, “How can we use the 8 billion people we have on the planet today to shape the world we want tomorrow?” Comprehensive and full of incisive analysis, this is not to be missed. (Mar.)
Thought Economics - Vikas Shah Mbe
"Provocative and penetrating...[Sciubba shows] how a deeper understanding of fertility, mortality, and migration trends point us toward the investments we need to make today to shape the future we want tomorrow."
Valerie Hudson
"Demography may not be destiny, but it’s destiny’s kissing cousin. Jennifer Sciubba’s easily accessible writing will make an armchair demographer of even those without any background in the subject. Demography is key to understanding the most important trends affecting nations, regions, and the world today, and this book proves a wise guide in that endeavor."
Kirkus Reviews
2021-12-24
If you want to know where we are going and where we have been, look at the trends of demography.
The field of demography has seen more than its share of doomsayers, but the reports have varied widely, with some arguing that there are too many people, some that there are not enough, and others that they are in the wrong places. Sciubba, a professor of international relations and former demographics consultant to the United States Department of Defense, is unfailingly thorough in her research for this authoritative book. She traces the history of the debates, focusing on the key issues of fertility, mortality, and immigration. She notes that the global population is currently around 8 billion and that most of the future growth will be in Africa. With economic development, population growth stabilizes and then starts to fall, due to fewer births and longer life spans. Japan could soon fall below the level needed to sustain the country, and South Korea is not far behind. Population growth in the U.S. has been bolstered by waves of immigration, which has kept the numbers up but is also changing the social composition. Immigration has become a political flashpoint in many countries, but generally there are long-term benefits in larger populations. For developing nations, there can be a demographic dividend if policymakers are willing to make investments in education and infrastructure to take advantage of a bubble in the labor force structure. But Sciubba also looks at how large numbers of unemployed or underemployed young people can lead to social disruption. Some of the old assumptions, such as that a large population is needed for a dynamic manufacturing sector or a strong military, might no longer hold true due to technological changes. Posing interesting and important questions, the author writes in clear, jargon-free language. She is generally optimistic, as long as the issues are properly understood and the right decisions are made.
An articulate, absorbing examination of where the demographic road is leading and how we can avoid the emerging pitfalls.
