The 1960 ‘doomsday’ paper projected population growth
The paper gave a date in 2026 for what its math called ‘doomsday’. It assumed that population growth would keep speeding up as it had in the past. Real population growth did not follow that path.
The viral claim
A study in Science predicted the world would end on 13 November 2026.
How we reached the verdict
The paper’s title includes an important condition. Its result depends on past population trends continuing. Western News and ABC News explain how the authors extended that trend and how actual population growth differed. The result describes a limit in a model, not a physical event.
Sources
- Western News · Reporting
- ABC News · Reporting
- 1960 paper record · Primary evidence
- What the Fact · Discovery