This becomes a lot more understandable when you internalize that Europe had close to 30% of the world's population in 1900.
Countries like Belgium had as many people as Ethiopia.
Not that I want to deny Europe needs to get its shit together, we definitely do, but this is a silly comparison.
The reason why China declined in the 19th century is that European countries became industrial economies and were the first of any countries to move into a sustained growth regime.
The reason why Europe is now declining in relative terms is that China and other non-Western countries have become industrial economies and started to catch up with the West.
In other words, Europe's decline today, measured by how fast its share of world GDP is falling, is just a consequence of the fact that the Industrial Revolution happened in Europe first.
This left most of the world behind and now it's finally catching up, which mechanically results in a fall of Europe's share of world GDP, because the rest of the world contains a very large share of the population.
This isn't a particularly interesting or deep observation and doesn't mean that we are going to be dominated in the way China was during the "century of humiliation".
It matters a lot whether one's share of world GDP declines because you're leaving others behind or because others are finally catching up.
I know it's a bit more complicated because the US's share of world GDP hasn't declined in the same way, let's not revisit the recent debate about US vs. Europe here, but this catching up is still what's behind this statistic for the most part.
@30yrboomerbird@insights198 In Northern Mexico/Bajio, you had the inverse. Nomadism to ranching which lead to higher population base for its environment. Underrated factor on why that area is also more European skewed than elsewhere with low European migrant share
I went through my undergraduate years at a time of maximum anti-declinism so everytime I read something like "this Ottoman province had, in 1800, 1/3rd-1/2 of the population the region had in 500" it still somehow manages to shock me.
@DatFollowButton I was reminded of our earlier discussions of Nepal and Remittance economies and I decided to see what the figure for Nepal in recent years would be.
130-150 (!) percent. Emigrant departures outnumbered the entire net population increase.