Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 June 2022
The global human population has increased hugely since the mid-nineteenth century and stands at almost 8 billion at the time of writing. This trend is mirrored in Britain, especially in England, with a total UK population of almost 68 million in 2020. Predictions imply that global increases will slow down, perhaps peaking at around 10 billion by 2100. Three factors contribute to changes in population size. In Britain, the reproductive rate has been below the replacement level of around 2.1 children per couple for several decades. The ongoing increase in human numbers has been dictated primarily by the other two factors. Longevity has increased steadily; people are living longer. However, the most significant driver by far in recent decades has been the high level of net immigration into Britain. Wildlife declines are statistically related to human population density across Western Europe at least with respect to two well-studied taxonomic groups, amphibians and birds.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.