The data are in: The United States is getting older and welcoming fewer babies. This decades-long phenomenon is creating a demographic squeeze that some anticipate will affect nearly every aspect of the nation’s economy and infrastructure over the next couple of decades.
“I see a total reshuffling of our economy and society, brought about by historic demographic turnover,” regenerative medicine specialist Dr. David Ghozland told The Epoch Times.
Ghozland said he believes that this population inversion will force structural changes at the budget and care level, potentially leading to what he called a “cruel choice” in the next 10 years.
Health Care Upheaval
Ghozland said he is already seeing a dramatic change in the health care industry.“We are currently observing the boom of the longevity business, which is going to become a multibillion-dollar industry exceeding 30 trillion [dollars] that will integrate biotech, wellness, and regenerative medicine,” he said.
Medicine and wellness care focused on supporting longevity is no longer a niche industry, according to Ghozland. However, he said this new economic driver in the health care sector hides a “great threat.”
Ghozland said that population inversion, aside from putting more pressure on existing U.S. health care resources, will lead to the long-term disintegration of the “social contract.”
In his work in reproductive care, Ghozland has seen the other side of the U.S. population inversion.
“There is a greater social-psychological cause of declining birth rates that I term ‘procreative dissonance,’” he said.
“My patients maintain the optimal levels of health and are biologically young even in their 40s. This creates a robust yet untrue feeling of suspended biological time, which comes into conflict with the fixed timetable of female ovarian aging.”
Ghozland said he believes that this contradiction—between readiness to have children and the biological window of time in which to have them—is “a dividing line” that prevents many couples from starting a family. Data also support his observation.
While some researchers say the dangers of this demographic shift are overstated, others believe that it will have a massive effect on the economy.
The McKinsey analysis stated that younger generations will inherit “lower economic growth and shoulder the cost of more retirees, while the traditional flow of wealth between generations erodes.”
At the same time, according to analysts, nations, including the United States, need to raise fertility rates to avoid a passive “depopulation.”
Labor Market Transformation
The labor market will also undergo a drastic transformation as fewer people enter the workforce over the next several decades. Meanwhile, adults are choosing to work longer into what traditionally would have been their retirement years. Some are even reentering the job market.“It’s not so much the average age of the population that will be ... important, [but rather] the average age of the workforce,” Scott Siff, CEO of Pivoters, told The Epoch Times. Pivoters helps match job seekers older than 55 with employers seeking talent.
“At the moment, there are around 110 million people in the population over 55, and only about 37 percent are working,” Siff said. “But 74 percent of them want to be working.”
“The biggest change we can look for is that the entire concept of retirement will change dramatically, and perhaps fade away entirely,” Siff said.
Siff said he believes that as overall population growth begins to slow, millions of adults older than 55 will start reentering the workforce en masse—and only partially because of lack of retirement savings.
While they need to work for financial reasons, “increasingly, they also want to work because of the dramatic positive impacts work has on longevity, happiness, health, and sense of purpose,” he said.
“The median savings today for people reaching so-called retirement age is about $50,000, but now that people can live decades past this notional retirement age, estimates are that people need to have $1 million saved for retirement,” Siff said.
Changing Defense Landscape
Among the areas that stand to be affected heavily by an aging population and fewer births is the U.S. military.“In past generations, the military could rely on sheer demographic weight to fill its ranks, even in wartime,” national security lawyer Irina Tsukerman told The Epoch Times. “By the mid-2030s, that buffer will no longer exist.
“The share of Americans aged 18 to 24 will contract sharply, and within that group, a majority will not meet enlistment standards due to health, education, or legal disqualifiers.
“This demographic contraction will collide with intensifying global demands, forcing the Pentagon to operate with fewer bodies and greater reliance on precision technology, automation, and specialized training.”
Tsukerman said she believes that this will force the U.S. armed forces to rethink what readiness means.
“Rather than sustaining large standing forces, future planners will lean toward smaller, highly skilled units equipped with autonomous platforms, [artificial intelligence]-driven logistics, and advanced long-range systems,” Tsukerman said.
However, she said this pivot carries its own risks. Fewer troops mean less depth and more restricted options for sustained operations in multiple theaters.
“The convergence of aging and low fertility carries profound strategic consequences,” she said. “A nation’s military power rests not only on technology but on demographics—the capacity to field forces, sustain industries, and project vitality.
“As America grows older, the balance between dependents and producers shifts, tightening fiscal space and straining the social contract that underwrites defense spending.
“Entitlements consume an ever-larger share of the federal budget, crowding out investment in modernization, research, and force readiness.”
