Dangerous and destabilizing demographics!

ARTICLE: In Reversal, Highly Developed Nations See Rise in Fertility, By Rob Stein, Washington Post, August 10, 2009

Just goes to show that assuming today's demographic trends will extend linearly into the future is dangerous.

Now, however, new research has produced the first glimmer of hope that economic prosperity may not be linked to an inexorable decline in fertility. The new analysis has found that in many countries, once a nation achieves an especially high level of development, women appear to start having more babies again.

"This is something like a light at the end of the tunnel for some of these countries whose populations were on the path to decline," said Hans-Peter Kohler, a professor of sociology at the University of Pennsylvania who helped conduct the research. "We project a more optimistic future where fertility will go up, which reduces fears of rapid population decline and rapid aging."

I just know that, somehow, demographers and political pundits will find some way to make this new trend now look dangerous and destabilizing!