USA - Alarming Population Decline

According to U.S. Census estimates released on Jan. 27, population growth has slowed “significantly,” with just 1.8 million more people between July 1, 2024, and July 1, 2025.

That amount of population growth—just 0.5%—is the slowest rate of growth since early in the COVID-19 pandemic, when a worldwide shutdown slowed population growth to just 0.2% in 2021. And it comes after a significant uptick in 2024, when 3.2 million people were added to the U.S. population, which grew by a full percentage point, the most growth since 2006.

The main culprit for slower growth? What one Census Bureau official called “a historic decline in net international migration.”

But the data was also filled with continued alarming trends in birth rates and some surprising regions that are gaining population.

The Census Bureau said that if trends hold, migration into the United States will drop by another 1 million people, to about 321,000, by this July.

-www.usatoday.com, 28 January 2026

Commentary: The alarming reports some five decades ago about the world’s overpopulation seem to be in error; in fact, the opposite is occurring. It is noticeable that the decline is occurring in the developed world. Yet the industrial states desperately need immigrants to satisfy the labor pool.

DW.com warns, “Germany’s workforce could shrink by 10% by 2040 without ‘substantial’ immigration, according to a study commissioned by the Bertelsmann Foundation.” Without an influx of about 288,000 skilled foreign workers per year, Germany’s workforce could drop significantly.

What are the reasons for population decline? A Census Bureau official said, “a historic decline in net international migration.”

The author of “Just One: The New Science, Secrets & Joy of Parenting an Only Child,” revealed that “one and done” is the new trend. Higher costs for education, healthcare, and housing are the reasons often mentioned by potential parents.

Only time will tell the outcome of the 0.5% growth rate, which is presumably going down. For one, there will be less young workers to support the elderly. Tax revenue will go down; subsequently, taxpayers must contribute more.

In Daniel 11:20 we read: “Then shall stand up in his estate a raiser of taxes in the glory of the kingdom: but within few days he shall be destroyed, neither in anger, nor in battle.” The prophet Daniel receives four visions, beginning with the first in chapter 7 relating to the land and people of Israel, revealing entities that are precursors to the Antichrist.

Prophetic scholars often identify this one as a forerunner of the Antichrist, whom Daniel described in the following verses, particularly emphasizing the words “peaceably … flatteries … deceitfully.” This is the one who will be “against the holy covenant” (verse 28), and in verse 30 “holy covenant” again appears twice.

When it comes to children, Psalm 127:3 declares: “Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.” The New Living Translation reads: “Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him.” Now we witness that God’s gift, children, are more or less rejected. Why? Because of comfort. We may express it with 2 Timothy 3: “For men shall be lovers of their own selves … lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God” (verses 2a, 4b).