Is there a global depopulation plan actively reducing populations in each country, targeting an 11 percent reduction worldwide by 2025? No, that's not true: These numbers circulating on social media are from a military-focused website with unclear ownership and whose information doesn't align with official data.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) on TikTok by user @stop_cenzura, on December 23, 2023, under the title (translated from Romanian to English by Lead Stories staff):
The Depopulation Plan!
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Fri Jan 5 12:30:49 2024 UTC)
There is no evidence to support the numbers published in the video. According to the United Nations (archived here), the world's population is growing and will continue to grow (archived here) beyond 2025. According to the European Commission, the projected population of the EU (archived here) is anticipated to rise from 446.7 million in 2022, reaching a peak of 453.3 million in 2026 (+1.5 percent). Subsequently, a gradual decline is forecasted to 447.9 million by 2050.
A reverse image search (archived here) revealed a source (archived here) that credited the origin of the statistics as a Deagel projections report (archived here) from 2021, which became viral on social media (archived here). Deagel.com is a military-focused website, currently lacking transparent information about its ownership. Archived versions of the site and its reports indicate that the owners previously asserted it was a nonprofit entity not affiliated with any government and "built on spare time."
Other archived sites reveal false connections of the website to U.S. intelligence services (archived here), along with associations to unfounded conspiracies related to global depopulation plans and the Great Reset. Lead Stories has debunked various conspiracy theories involving depopulation, including those involving WEF chief Klaus Schwab.
