zero population growth

American  

noun

1. the maintenance of a population at a constant level by limiting the number of live births to that needed to replace the existing population.

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zero population growth Cultural  

1. A condition in which a population neither grows nor declines, because the number of births in a year equals the number of deaths. Many industrialized countries have relatively low birth and death rates, and a steady but small population growth. Many Third World countries, however, have extremely high birth and death rates. Without effective methods of birth control, these populations grow at a phenomenal rate but without the resources to support them.

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Etymology

Origin of zero population growth

First recorded in 1965–70

Example Sentences

Five years ago, the University of Washington Urban Freight Lab predicted a doubling of goods deliveries and truck trips in the city center by 2023 — even with zero population growth.

From Seattle Times • Jun. 9, 2023

Sheryl — a practical and even-keeled teacher turned housewife — states plainly the influence of zero population growth theories and Paul and Anne Ehrlich’s 1968 book “The Population Bomb.”

From New York Times • Mar. 28, 2023

“We heard about this in the late 1960s with zero population growth crowd who warned that we needed to limit our families or doomsday would come. Now, we worry about replacement rates.”

From Fox News • Feb. 27, 2019

"This means that the species has zero population growth," Bercovitch says.

From Science Magazine • Jun. 22, 2017

Conversely, any civilization that engages in serious interstellar exploration and colonization must have exercised zero population growth or something very close to it for many generations.

From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan