After the Spike: Population, Progress and the Case for People

An eye-opening exploration of humanity’s unprecedented path to global depopulation and why it's in everyone's interests to prevent it.

'Stunning … essential reading' DANIEL H. PINK, author of Drive

If we continue as we are, the world’s population will peak in the next few decades – and then begin a sudden, rapid decline. It would be easy to think that fewer people would be better: better for the planet, better for the people who remain. In After the Spike, two leading population economists ask us to think again.

Carefully weighing the evidence that surrounds this controversial subject, Dean Spears and Mike Geruso explain why depopulation is not the solution some purport it to be. Instead, as humanity’s future shrinks it will become increasingly fragile and less certain, making it even harder to escape poverty, disease and injustice.

Halting this decline need not mean sacrificing a greener future or reverting to past inequities; in fact, it can only be achieved with women’s reproductive rights and individual choice as driving forces. But if we want future generations to enjoy lives better than our own, it’s time to take seriously our collective task of lifting the burdens of parents and other carers.

Deeply reasoned and uncompromisingly humane, After the Spike sheds important light on a dramatic shift in the human story and asks us to consider what future we want – for our planet, our children, and one another.

‘Remarkable … has challenged, and changed, my thinking about population’ PETER SINGER, author of Animal Liberation

‘Dissolves our preconceptions through evidence, rigour and a deep compassion for all’ TOBY ORD, author of The Precipice

‘Insights and rigour are matched by a human and empathetic narrative throughout’ HANNAH RITCHIE, author of Not the End of the World

‘I had my mind blown over and over’ ZACH WEINERSMITH, coauthor of A City on Mars

Dean Spears (Author)
Dean Spears and Michael Geruso are economists, demographers and associate professors at the University of Texas at Austin. Spears is a founding executive director of r.i.c.e, a nonprofit that works to promote children’s health, growth and survival in rural India. Geruso served as a senior economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers under President Biden, where he advised on healthcare and population change. Their research on health, population, and climate change has been published in top peer-reviewed journals and featured in publications such as The New York Times, Economist and National Geographic.

Mike Geruso (Author)
Dean Spears and Michael Geruso are economists, demographers and associate professors at the University of Texas at Austin. Spears is a founding executive director of r.i.c.e, a nonprofit that works to promote children’s health, growth and survival in rural India. Geruso served as a senior economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers under President Biden, where he advised on healthcare and population change. Their research on health, population, and climate change has been published in top peer-reviewed journals and featured in publications such as The New York Times, Economist and National Geographic.