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etchinghillside@reddthat.com 5 months ago
I don’t know what “peak 18 year old” is trying to convey.
I my town, we just had the peak graduating class in terms of number of students. From this point forward, at least as far as we have data on (which would be around 4 or 5 year olds entering the school system) there will be fewer people graduating every single year.
Our number of 18 year olds has peaked
It’s a very dumb way to say that population decline is predicted.
The birth rate really has dropped below replacement levels in the US. Immigration might not fill that gap. With how actively hostile the current administration is to immigrants, that seems likely.
Most people immigrating aren’t freahly 18 even if they were able to keep up with the population decline. Yes there are people on student visas but it’s less than half the number of H1B visas.
It’s an analogy to “peak oil”, meaning the time at which something is at its highest level to-date, but will only reduce from here.
I suspect it’s probably not quite taking that meaning here, cos 18 year olds as a demographic peaked a long time ago, but with the context of the article, I suspect they’re mainly talking about 18 year olds choosing to go into higher education
“Peak X” is a phrase that is often used to convey the highest point in a long term trend. And if we are past that peak, that implies that the trend will continue to be lower and lower for the foreseeable future.
Consider the nation’s supply of 18 year olds that would normally enter college. We can’t just create more 18 year olds on demand, couples would had to have gotten busy 19 years ago to produce today’s supply of 18 year olds. With birth rates declining, not only are there fewer 18 year olds now than before, but those 18 year olds will be able to make fewer humans when they all get busy with each other later.
To me, the peak in “peak 18-year-old” to me sounds like the Urban dictionary definition of peak than anything else.
We’re @ peak 18 yo rn & its LIT AF🔥
We can’t just create more 18 year olds on demand,
Well, there’s an easy way to get a lot of 18 year olds, but ICE is making sure that won’t happen.
I believe peak supply of people in that age group. I.e for the up coming future there will be less and less students since there are just fewer kids
I believe the correct word to use is fewer in this case, since students are a finite countable thing. Sorry.
phoenixz@lemmy.ca 5 months ago
The highest amount of 18 year old alive at one single moment in time
People have been having less children over the past two decades so now the amount of available 18 year olds is declining. This is happening inany countries for many reasons, usually increased prosperity retducing the need for children that will help you out
Some countries really went off a cliff (hello South Korea, are you okay? Please start accepting immigrants or you’ll cease to exist as a country) and others have it less, though still enough that it can cause severe problems. Less kids means that the gap between old and young widens twice as fast, and it means that you’ll have less work force available, and at the same time more people needing help, so the younger will have to work twice harder for the elder.