A significant reason for the downsizing is China, which was not long ago the world’s most populous country. Two years ago, when China first reported that its population was beginning to decline, the U.N. projected that the country’s population could shrink by 45% by the year 2100, from today’s 1.4 billion to 771 million. Now the U.N. has cut its prediction for 2100 to 633 million. That difference of 138 million people is almost the size of Russia’s current population (144 million) and is larger than the current population of Japan (125 million). Author: Wang Feng, professor of sociology

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