Back to basics: Decoding demographics with Dr. Jennifer D. Sciubba

Catherine's taking a break this week. In the meantime, we want to reshare one of our essential episodes on demographics. As you all know, by 2050, one in four people will be African. How do demographers reach this conclusion? And how does Africa's population growth intersect with population declines in the Global North? To answer these questions, Catherine was joined by Dr. Jennifer D. Sciubba, President and CEO of the Population Reference Bureau and one of the foremost experts in the field of political demography. Dr. Sciubba breaks down how demographers project future populations and the drivers of population growth. They discuss the limited window to take advantage of Africa’s demographic dividend, the population decline debate in the West, and why overpopulation is a contentious term. They also discuss how politics, cultural norms, women’s empowerment, and the autonomy to not have children factor into population growth. Book recommendation: States and Nature (The Politics of Climate Change) by Joshua W. Busby.

You can listen to Back to basics: Decoding demographics with Dr. Jennifer D. Sciubba online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Back to basics: Decoding demographics with Dr. Jennifer D. Sciubba is an episode from Into Africa by CSIS | Center for Strategic and International Studies.

This episode is 31:37 long.

This episode was published on Aug 28, 2025.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from Into Africa when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.