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Eight billion humans are living on planet Earth — a huge milestone officially projected for and being recognized Tuesday by the U.N. People are living longer, with generally better access to health care, food, clean water and sanitation than in past generations. A smaller share of humans live in extreme poverty. (Kight and Lysik, 11/14)

In a statement, the UN said the figure meant 1 billion people had been added to the global population in just 12 years. “This unprecedented growth is due to the gradual increase in human lifespan owing to improvements in public health, nutrition, personal hygiene and medicine. It is also the result of high and persistent levels of fertility in some countries,” the UN statement read. (Subramaniam, 11/15)

The slowdown is in large part driven by wealthy countries, where the costly burden of raising a child and falling marriage rates have meant that countries from South Korea to France are facing population declines as not enough babies are born to replace the elderly. Even as governments resort to measures like payouts and better housing loans for families with more kids, the UN sees little sign of that shifting the needle. It projects that in the next three decades, the number of people below 65 in high-income and upper-middle-income countries will decline while the older demographic above that age will grow. (De Wei, 11/15)

From 1973 to 2000, sperm counts dropped by 1.2% per year, "which is a lot," said Hagai Levine, who helped lead the research. From 2000 to 2018, the decline was 2.6% per year, "which is an amazing pace." The United States is part of this larger trend. "In the U.S., due to availability of good data, we have the highest certainty that there is a strong and sustainable decline, but it's similar globally," Levine said. (Weintraub, 11/15)