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Tens of millions moved into the middle class in China, southeast Asia and India.

“Every indicator of human well-being that you can measure … there’s no question it’s better today, no matter how many people we have,” said Hania Zlotnik, head of the UN’s population division.

“On the whole, society has been extremely successful, both in reducing population growth from its peak and making life better for most people.”

Since The Population Bomb exploded in the late 1960s, the Green Revolution has made agriculture exponentially more productive, feeding billions more, while economies that were near collapse are now thriving. Meanwhile, many demographers predict the population size will not keep spiralling out into “oblivion,” as Prof. Ehrlich suggested, but level off by the end of this century.

“In the end, it’s always the same story,” said Pierre Desrochers, a geography professor at the University of Toronto. “People forget that human beings are not just mouths that eat, but brains to work out new solutions.”

Still, experts warn there is no reason to be complacent — the number of humans keeps expanding and those average improvements in well-being obscure pockets of calamity. Many parts of the world — sub-Saharan Africa most prominent among them — still have high fertility rates and widespread, grinding poverty.

“The problems are here and now,” said Joel Cohen, head of the laboratory of populations at New York’s Rockefeller University. “People forget there are a billion chronically hungry people; every day those people wake up and they’re hungry all day, and they go to sleep hungry.”