News > Earth’s Insect Populations Are Falling 1-2% a Year

Earth’s Insect Populations Are Falling 1-2% a Year

Vital to the world’s food web, nested in nutrient cycling, and embedded in industries — the closer we look, the more we see insects as vital to maintaining life’s frameworks. Which is why the precipitous decline of insects is raising alarms.

Insect populations are being reduced at varying rates across space and time, but on average, the decline in their abundance is thought to be around 1-2% per year or 10-20% per decade.