Demographic undestiny

Demography becomes destiny, the old adage goes. But many of the most confidently promoted demographic predictions have turned out grossly exaggerated or even dead wrong. In many cases they tend to reflect more the aspirations of pundits and reporters than the actual on-the-ground realities.
Good thing, too. Many of the most famous predictions about population growth tended to be dystopic, envisioning a hopelessly overcrowded planet increasingly divided by race, crammed into a handful of large ci