There is no denying that an increasing population brings with it environmental problems. However, a critical challenge that the planet appears to be facing today is the polar opposite of what many doomsayers predicted: a declining global population.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a new report earlier this month that announced the U.S. birth rate dropped by 4%, the sharpest single-year fall in nearly 50 years and the lowest number of births since 1979.

The New York Times investigated how the pandemic could hasten American decline, noting that deaths are expected to outnumber births globally by the end of the century, if not sooner

Scientific projections indicate a growing retirement-age population combined with a shrinking working-class population would strain the economy - not to mention contribute to an increasing rate of deaths versus births in future decades.

According to a report last year, 183 of the world's 195 countries and territories will have fertility rates below replacement level by 2100.

A world with fewer people could minimize resource strains, delay the disruptive effects of climate change, and alleviate household stresses for women. However, this month's census announcements from China and the United States, which revealed the slowest rates of population growth in decades for both nations, point to difficult-to-understand changes.

Longer life expectancy and low fertility, which result in fewer jobs and more retirees, threaten to upend how communities are structured - around the idea that a surplus of young people can drive economies and help care for the elderly. It may also necessitate a rethinking of family and nation.

"A paradigm shift is necessary," former chief of population trends and analysis for the United Nations Frank Swiaczny told The New York Times. "Countries need to learn to live with and adapt to decline."

Women's access to education and contraceptives has grown, and as the anxieties associated with raising children have increased, more parents are delaying pregnancy and fewer babies are being born.

Even in countries with a long history of rapid growth, such as India and Mexico, birth rates are approaching, if not already below, the replacement rate of 2.1 children per family.

South Korea, one of the shrinking nations, is giving out baby incentives, investing more than $178 billion in the last 15 years to encourage women to have more children.