Human Extinction from a Probabilistic Demographic Perspective

Studies that predict species extinction have focused on a range of flora and fauna but in regard to Homo sapiens there are, with one notable exception, no predictive studies, only considerations of possible ways this may occur. The exception believes extinction of Homo sapiens will happen in 10,000 years. We agree that extinction will happen, but we disagree on the timing. The world population is currently 8.1 billion, Given the decline in fertility between 2019 and 2024 and employing a probabilistic forecasting method in conjunction with 66% confidence intervals, we find: by 2139 the world population will be between 1.55 billion and 1.81 billion; by 2239, it will be between 4.95 million and 5.84 million and by 2339 there will be no humans.

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Publication Details

Published
2025-08-20
DOI
https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/zjca2_v1
Primary Topic
Innovation, Sustainability, Human-Machine Systems
Type
article
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article

Human Extinction from a Probabilistic Demographic Perspective

David A. Swanson, Jeff Tayman
Innovation, Sustainability, Human-Machine Systems
article

Human Extinction from a Probabilistic Demographic Perspective

David A. Swanson, Jeff Tayman
article en

Abstract

Studies that predict species extinction have focused on a range of flora and fauna but in regard to Homo sapiens there are, with one notable exception, no predictive studies, only considerations of possible ways this may occur. The exception believes extinction of Homo sapiens will happen in 10,000 years. We agree that extinction will happen, but we disagree on the timing. The world population is currently 8.1 billion, Given the decline in fertility between 2019 and 2024 and employing a probabilistic forecasting method in conjunction with 66% confidence intervals, we find: by 2139 the world population will be between 1.55 billion and 1.81 billion; by 2239, it will be between 4.95 million and 5.84 million and by 2339 there will be no humans.

Openalex Percentile: Top 71%
Innovation, Sustainability, Human-Machine Systems
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