evidence: 50 years ago the average woman in world had five children. This figure has more than halved. Yet the global population is still rising – why? Note: This article was published in 2019, and has not been updated with the latest demographic data. While the numbers might now be slightly different, the principles and concepts remain true. [...] Population momentum is driven by the increasingly large cohorts of women in the reproductive age bracket. It’s only when both the fertility rate and the number of women level off that population momentum stops. And this is when global population growth will come to an end.