shrinking populations ... what do you know

Those that reproduce will flood into areas where they can reproduce freely, even if those from that area are slowing up. In time the intelligent and the wealthy choose to work rather than passing on their genes (unless they donate sperm or eggs) and the ones supporting the growth of the top cultures begin to slow. If the breeders over take the achievers, then education levels fail too. In time the population collapses due to events caused by the offspring of the breeders and the uneducated causing trouble. That would eventually decrease the population. Of course, wars and plagues work fast as well.

Perhaps look to China for that answer, not sure. Society is certainly changing. I wonder if the family unit is a thing of the past or will return. You are right in my area it is more common to see single parents than not.

i think the population is still growing... maybe even faster than before since many teens are getting pregnant right now, people are just careless it is heartbreaking to see kids grow up with irresponsible parents

Population is shrinking because we are over populated in certain parts of the world. In China, apparently one child per family is only allowed. Here in America, families are getting smaller, and a lot of people are either choosing not to have children, which can be deemed good in many ways, yet bad in other many ways too. So it evens out, good and bad. But there's also so many people who cannot have kids! The foods we eat, and bio weapons are all part of the government conspiracy.. in my opinion...

Things are hanging, not sure if it is for the better or worse. The family unit is important but the kind of family unit we are used to is changing. Perhaps it is a good thing that the population is declining as I am not sure how we will feed ourselves in the next 50 years.

Well the population is far from shrinking, so you must not worry about that. However more and more nations are facing the problem of infertility among couples ( nations with higher GDP and higher working hours ) due to their lifestyles which are unhealthy ofcourse and i don't mean it on just the physical level but also psychological. Kids without both parents are rising majority nowadays and this is something to worry about because such children have been shown to develop depression and other psychological ailments much more easily and early. Marriages not working out can be attributed to one thing only- Ego! To fix what is broken, why would you? When it is simpler to just change it without any social stigma involved. There is no longer a compulsion involved. You can debate all you want about the reasons but no marriage is a fairytale and all of them need some working, some more than others. Not getting married in the first place is completely fine, marrying and then breaking off is wrong ( except for the ones involving violence of any sort ), marrying and having kids and then divorcing- now that's just downright terrible!

Oh they should come by our country... the answer may be adoption. Too many kids in other countries can fill up all the needs of less reproductive countries. But then again if you're talking about infidelity and lack of commitment well, that's the loose morals of people nowadays. No sense of self control or too selfish maybe? Who knows what issues they have in their lives. People will get what they deserve anyway, karma is a b*tch. Responsibility should be something people don't play around with. And I could go on and on but I'd rather not.

I think we Indians could do with some of that shrinking for sure. Don't worry, there will come a time when they will be jobless because there will be no demand for what they can manufacture or services they can offer. That is when they will rethink and come up with solution. There was a time when people were screaming stop over population. Nobody bothered to listen. So even if you have a solution, nobody wants it.

Good question and not really sure, maybe it could.

yes it's true that these days family isn't granted the importance that is supposed to. this is a tendency that can't bring anything good and I strongly believe that a child needs both parents in order to grow into a healthy adult

Well, the world's population is still increasing despite common cases of marriage break ups and single parenting in the society.

Its the last thing that would be normal.

I doubt that it would cause the population to shrink. At least not drastically. And to answer the question of what's "normal", I think everyone has their own definition of what's normal.

i dont think this is accurate. the world population is always increasing and honestly, its good that people dont have kids becuase at some point there will be way too many people on earth to sustain anything.