[bohadi]

I was interested in historical demographic predictions. What did the UN project for 2020 in 1950, 1960, 1970 etc.

Unfortunately pre-1950 demographic prediction is a little harder to find. I wonder why*

Anyway a reliable source is found here: https://ourworldindata.org/population-projections

In summary historical population projections have been pretty accurate but not in the way you expect.

*One thought is that because current date may become a historical inflection point similar to the first half of the 20th century, current date demographic statistics may be too important to put much stock in. Sobering.

[ignorethefacts]

That's a great resource, thanks.

It's what I expected, what the UN predicts follows the agenda of the day. Previous it was the fear of some enemy population and now they are trying to normalise the idea of population reduction.

[bohadi]

indeed the prediction and agenda go hand-in-hand

it could not be otherwise else the agenda would alter the prediction until the new prediction and the new agenda match

interestingly this operation is the same as an agentic ai