> in addition, recent evidence suggests birth rates may be rising in the 21st century in the developed world There is zero evidence that birth rates are rising

> in addition, recent evidence suggests birth rates may be rising in the 21st century in the developed world There is zero evidence that birth rates are rising organically in the developed world in the 21st century, that part is demonstrably false. It's not close to being true. Birth rates continue to decline across essentially all of the developed world and their populations continue to age at the median (Germany and Japan, two of the largest, are up to 47 at the median now). The only thing propping the figures up at all is some immigration, recent immigrants having slightly larger families. Even that is entirely failing to stem the downward trend in the US (the largest developed nation by population and one that has better demographics re expansion than most other developed nations). Drop out the false shifting of population expansion via larger recent immigrant families and the developed world is in a population plunge. > Reasons for the continuing high birth rate include better survival rates with respect to HIV HIV survival rates going up will decrease population growth over time, not increase it. People have fewer children when their expectations of a very long life and the general chance of survival in their culture is higher. Curing HIV would substantially slow population growth over the span of a century.