People aged 65 and older now outnumber children aged 5 and younger worldwide for the first time in recorded history
this post was submitted on 07 Sep 2026
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Under age 5.
Not kids.
They cherry picked a kids age to be dramatic.
The birth rate is over 1. For almost all countries and it's almost 2 in the U.S.
The replacement rate is over 2, though.
Until recently in the US the fertility rate was almost 2 and we made it up with immigration. Now we’re trying to be isolationist and the fertility rate is no longer almost 2
1.6
Why not let more immigrants in then?
Oh that's right. Racism.
This is one of the things I don’t understand. They’re so intent on causing misery and destruction that it overrides their greed and lust for power.
Immigrants, documented and otherwise, are much more likely to be exploitable to maximize profit. Shouldn’t their greed, or that of their corporate masters, like immigration? Especially undocumented since we seem to push all the risk on the worker rather than the employer? Any motivated capitalist should love that
Yeah I'm pretty sure they intentionally push hate on immigrants to further exploit immigrants.
No one will hire you because you are a foreigner? Not to worry friends. This meat packing plant will pay you $4 an hour for 12 hr shifts.
Oh the meat packing plant gets caught hiring illegals.
That's deportation for the workers. Slap on the wrist for the company that just made millions from the cheap labor.
They don't want the workers to have legal status. Or rights. They want them scared and desperate.
That way they can pay them nothing. Put them in danger. Treat them like shit. And no one will call OSHA on them. No one will file a lawsuit.
Almost as if the current government's real mission is to sabotage the US in every way possible.
Oh no, how we will we maintain value for our shareholders?!
I’m more concerned about people wanting to use that to raise the retirement age.
- They don’t understand averages. Reducing childhood deaths significantly raises average life expectancy by increasing the number of people who reach retirement ages, not by making them more able to work
- Nothing forces people to retire at a specific age. I’m more concerned about being able to work long enough to afford retiring. “Retirement age” is 67 and I don’t expect to be able to work that long
- Ageism is a thing. As I’m approaching 60, I understand I may never be able to get hired again in my field. This may be my last job, whether I want that or not, and regardless of what retirement age is
- There is no such thing as retirement age in the us. There is only the age range at which social security will start paying out. That has nothing to do with how old you need to keep working, how old you can keep working, or how old you’re allowed to keep working
They don’t understand averages.
It's more about mortality rates, remaining life expectancies at different ages, and how those have changed over time, but yeah. High infant mortality really skews those stats.
I’m more concerned about being able to work long enough to afford retiring.
You're not alone in that. I'm 70 and still working fulltime. I'll be retiring at 71. At that point, my mortgage will be paid off and my post-retirement disposable income will exceed what I get now while working. I was hoping for better, but life had other plans for me. At least, so far, I have good health and fitness, though I look like three miles of bad road.
Ageism is a thing. As I’m approaching 60, I understand I may never be able to get hired again in my field.
It made things more difficult for me but not impossible. I got my current job at age 58, and I'm in a highly technical field where age discrimination is even more virulent than elsewhere. Only three firms gave me an interview and I got offers from two of them. So I'd characterize it as shitty but not quite impossible. The (slightly) good news is that, in most US states, if you have a job, it's harder to lay you off as you get near retirement age. It's not quite a protected category, but close.
I'm young still but well said. This is what my mom used to talk about but I still struggle to understand and implement. I'll get there but sooner would be better.
It's okay. Now that AI can do all the jobs the population crisis is over.
Now everybody get dying!
The graph states it happened in 2023... is this news at all?
Sometimes it takes a while for statisticians to notice things, I guess.
Cioran vindicated. Ligotti - We are all uncanny things. May we all march gracefully out.
So.. By the time the kids outnumber the boomers theyll be in the same age group as the people they criticize? Noice.
oh im sure if they make things shittier plenty of folks will get on the. oh lets have kids bandwagon.
Seems like the approach we’re trying is to prevent people from not having kids they can’t care for, and prevent underage people from having the knowledge or medical support to not have kids when they are still kids
Over 65, at current life expectancy rate at age 65, is an age range from 65 to a median of 84. So 19 years.
Birth to 5 is, hmm, let me check my calculator: 5 years.
Comparing apples and canteloupes.