Others believe a decreased population will benefit the planet by slowing down climate change. Still others argue that migration will fill the gap.
Imagine a world where the numbers of human beings are not rising, but falling. All sorts of things change, from not needing more homes for people to live in, to much lower numbers of schoolchildren and university students, to the need for older people to say in work for longer, and for pressure on the planet’s resources to start to dip.
It will go on climbing in some countries and regions, and fall quite dramatically in others.
So, from a British perspective, our population will become an older one – what will it feel like?
There will also likely be schemes to encourage older people to stay in some form of paid work, as well as carrying out voluntary contributions, with the aim of softening the distinction between work and retirement.
No one can know how effective this will be, and most tax schemes designed to encourage higher birth rates have not been successful. Japan, the oldest society on earth, has been trying to boost birth rates since the 90s, but results have been discouraging. But if it works, expect it to be copied in other European countries, especially those with even lower fertility rates, including Spain and Italy.
However, my guess is that at some stage in the next 25 years, people across the developed world will start to have larger families, not because governments give them incentives to do so, but simply because that is what they want.
It’s plausible that as the baby-boomers’ wealth is passed down to children and grandchildren, the more fortunate members of the next generations will feel comfortable having more children.
There will have to be changes in social attitudes though and workplace policies will need to be more accommodating for parents.
Within the developed world some countries will cope better than others at making older societies work, and there will always be people who struggle to adapt to any massive social change. Even if there is some recovery in birth rates, which I think will happen, most European and East Asian countries will still be ageing fast.
Hamish McRae is an award-winning business and economics journalist
Perspectives: One topic, multiple views
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