Population Momentum

Population momentum is the tendency of a growing population to keep growing for decades even after fertility falls to the replacement level, simply because its age structure is heavily weighted toward young people who have yet to reach childbearing age. Introduced by Nathan Keyfitz in 1971, the momentum factor measures how much larger (or smaller) a population will ultimately become if fertility instantly drops to exact replacement. It explains why ending rapid population growth is not immediate: the built-in youthfulness of a fast-growing population carries growth forward long after birth rates stabilize.