In stark contrast to Paul Ehrlich's 1968 The Population Bomb, which predicted mass starvation and societal collapse from overpopulation by the 1980s, the opposite has occurred. Innovations like the Green Revolution boosted yields dramatically, turning population pressure into a driver of food abundance. Our World in Data and FAO show per capita food supplies rising steadily since 1961, outpacing population growth on every continent and slashing extreme hunger rates.
https://x.com/ourworldindata/status/2008558061766517228
World population has more than doubled since 1968—from 3.5 billion to over 8.2 billion today—yet caloric availability per person has increased, and undernourishment has plummeted long-term. The 2025 SOFI report estimates 673 million faced hunger in 2024 (about 8.2% of the population), far below mid-20th-century levels despite billions more people. Regional challenges persist, but the big picture is human triumph: growth spurred innovation, proving doomsday forecasts wrong as population heads toward a mid-2080s peak around 10.3 billion.