Below is a small collection of population predictions for our time (and beyond), published in past publictions. The earliest dating from 1859, looking all the way out to 1990. Some were surprisingly accurate, while others were far off the mark. … Read entire article »

A 1938 article in the Evening Post attempted to predict the United States population 42 years in the future. Surprisingly, the writer predicted that the population would actually start to decrease after 1980. … Read entire article »

According to an article in the Meriden Daily Journal dated 9/24/1921, Massachusetts resident Alfred V. Lincoln set aside $7500 of his estate at compound interest for 90 years, to be withdrawn in the year 2011 in order to plant trees in his hometown. The 1921 article estimated that his $7500 could grow to $250,000 and as high as millions. The article pondered if the interest system would even exist 90 years in the future. Internet searches have revealed nothing about the outcome of this story. The original story reads: TURN $7,500 INTO $250,000 Bank ads often say that if $1 had been placed at compound interest in the year 1, it would have grown, by now, to a sum bigger than all the money in the world. That must have caught the eye of Alfred … Read entire article »

Prediction: World’s natural gas down to last 10% by 2010 Date: 1974 Score: Wrong Amid the 1970′s oil crisis, there was a lot of talk about the long-term supply of petroleum and of natural gas. In an article dated 10/14/1974 in the Ludington Daily News, writer H.J. Heller quotes William R. Gould, chairman of the Atomic Industrial Forum, Inc. as saying that  ”we are expected to reach the last 10 per cent of the earth’s supply of natural gas.” Some cursory research of various sources leads to the determination that this prediction was way off. We have at least 60-100 years left of natural gas supplies that we know of. … Read entire article »

In a 1957 article, predictions were made for what life might be like 50 years later, in the year 2007. Here’s what they had to say: … Read entire article »