Marty, this place is a nest in a tree of trust and understanding. We can say anything here.
Ok I'll bite.
Here's 50 years of data, which is also summarized in the graph above, as it shows a local maximum and if we were to approximate a function to this data, it would not be a positive exponential function. Because the 2nd derivative of population is negative, it cannot be a positive exponential function. Increasing at a decreasing rate
So I get that it is not an exponential function. But your % figures don't tell the full story. 4th column added to show the absolute numerical increase in mouths to feed. Even though the % growth is slowing, it is not due to the number of births falling. It's just that the denominator (total number of people) is getting very large. Amazing how linear the function is.
I see this same argument about China's economic growth rate all the time. Everyone is falling over themselves worried that China's growth rate is slowing. Well that's because they are now very very large. The nominal increase might be the same, it's just that the growth is measured against a much larger base.
77m is an awful lot of people calling planet earth home each year. Population of Australia is 23million. Although we have the 7th largest land mass in the world I doubt we can support many more given the lack of water and changing climate.
Year Population % growth abs increase
1962 3,139,919,051 2.22
1963 3,209,631,895 2.22 69,712,844
1964 3,280,981,862 2.10 71,349,967
1965 3,350,186,115 2.09 69,204,253
1966 3,420,416,498 2.03 70,230,383
1967 3,490,051,163 2.06 69,634,665
1968 3,562,007,503 2.1 71,956,340
1969 3,636,825,800 2.07 74,818,297
1970 3,712,338,708 2.09 75,512,908
1971 3,789,941,225 2.01 77,602,517
1972 3,866,158,404 1.95 76,217,179
1973 3,941,664,971 1.89 75,506,567
1974 4,016,159,586 1.80 74,494,615
1975 4,088,621,062 1.73 72,461,476
1976 4,159,718,199 1.72 71,097,137
1977 4,231,619,236 1.70 71,901,037
1978 4,303,647,736 1.74 72,028,500
1979 4,378,565,589 1.65 74,917,853
1980 4,450,929,761 1.86 72,364,172
1981 4,533,928,518 1.76 82,998,757
1982 4,614,015,853 1.75 80,087,335
1983 4,695,112,999 1.67 81,097,146
1984 4,773,874,962 1.71 78,761,963
1985 4,855,692,131 1.73 81,817,169
1986 4,939,715,093 1.75 84,022,962
1987 5,026,262,667 1.73 86,547,574
1988 5,113,554,741 1.69 87,292,074
1989 5,200,376,354 1.68 86,821,613
1990 5,287,869,228 1.56 87,492,874
1991 5,370,833,520 1.58 82,964,292
1992 5,455,716,183 1.51 84,882,663
1993 5,538,201,967 1.45 82,485,784
1994 5,618,942,438 1.43 80,740,471
1995 5,699,768,392 1.41 80,825,954
1996 5,780,312,511 1.36 80,544,119
1997 5,859,124,817 1.32 78,812,306
1998 5,936,610,692 1.29 77,485,875
1999 6,013,679,354 1.27 77,068,662
2000 6,090,319,399 1.26 76,640,045
2001 6,167,064,399 1.24 76,745,000
2002 6,243,867,851 1.22 76,803,452
2003 6,320,371,175 1.21 76,503,324
2004 6,397,322,922 1.20 76,951,747
2005 6,474,229,144 1.20 76,906,222
2006 6,552,104,498 1.20 77,875,354
2007 6,630,764,007 1.18 78,659,509
2008 6,709,620,605 1.17 78,856,598
2009 6,788,203,578 1.14 78,582,973
2010 6,866,054,281 1.12 77,850,703
2011 6,943,437,438 1.11 77,383,157
2012 7,020,760,225 1.10 77,322,787