This is an updated version of a story first published on April 27, 2025. The original video can be viewed here .

The world's population may have recently exceeded eight billion, but it's a deceptive number. Not only is growth unevenly distributed, but in so many countries, population is in decline. In some cases, steep, deep decline. Maybe most graphically (and demographically) there's Japan: a country that, since hitting a high of 128 million citizens in 2008, has lost population for 15 years running and is on pace to shrink by half by this century's end, despite government measures to halt the decline. This has huge impacts on the economy, the health care system, education, housing, national defense, immigration, the culture at large. Governments can control interest rates and inflat

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