It has not nor can it ever rise. It is, was and always will be 21 million.
Thanks for clearing that up.
I have a few more questions.
After all 21 million bitcoins have been mined, will there be no more bitcoin mining.
I've read about people that have accidentally had hard drives destroyed that have bitcoins stored in them. What happens to those bitcoins? Are they lost forever, or are they put back into circulation some how?