The United Nations projects a gradual decline of Europe’s population from 732 million now to 691 million in 2050, with a further decline most likely to follow. This, according to The Guardian, is anything but a catastrophe.
“Since the late 19th century, when a massive decline in birth rates began in most of Europe, some demographers and long-forgotten futurologists have been busy envisioning an inevitable demise of Europe and ‘western civilization.’ However, it is not population size but affluence and technology that make some countries more powerful than others. Switzerland, with a population of 8 million, is globally more significant than, say, Bangladesh, with a population 20 times larger. In any case, a slow decline in European population should be cheerfully welcomed by all who care about climate change and global pressure on resources.”
Eric Koch’s new book, The Weimar Triangle, is available at Indigo-Chapters and in your local bookstore. 
Malthus would not worry.
True. He would have said that the population in Europe is “repressed by misery and vice”.
He was an Anglican clergyman.
Some of those who say they are worried are worried because the declining birth rate of ‘old stock’ Europeans contrasts with immigration and high birth rate of non-traditional Europeans. The Guardian may be reassuring about that too, but it’s a differerent debate than about the imagined pure economic, political or cultural desirability of a large population.
In days of globalization, does it really matter that one small area of the world has a smaller population if the overall total continues to increase? I suppose every little bit helps – every drop not in the bucket, as it were…
I want the birthrate on YOUR street to be high because it demonstrates optimism and vitality and on MY street low – less noise.