How many people can live on planet Earth?

[dtewi]

Slimebeast said:

dtewi said:
Well, we're approaching zero population growth. Basically, in a few generations, the population should be rapidly stagnating.

Not true. Each woman on Earth gets something like 4 kids on average. That means still a doubling of each generation! Even in the West most couples get on average nearly 2.0 kids (and who is to say that all countries will mimic Western family patterns in the future?).

Even if in the very distant future each woman gets only 1,5 kids on average (very unlikely) that rate of decrease will largely be off-set by a steady increase in life expectancy.

Decreasing population in the West, possibly yes. Decreasing population in the World, not in centuries.

You know what zero population growth is, correct?

A couple having two children on average. The two children replace the two parents. There is a net gain of zero people.

America has accomplished this, along with China (?).

And can you PLEASE get the real statistic of average children per couple instead of pulling it out of a hat?