demography

Most governments must juggle budgets and confront the fact that the world has fewer people of working age to support the swelling ranks of the elderly. Joseph Chamie, a demographer, analyzes the Potential Support Ratio, or PSR, and suggests the statistic could reveal more about the overall health of an economy than GDP or other common indicators. “The PSR has weighty implications for governments and businesses concerning the labor force, taxation, education, housing, production and consumption, retirement, pensions, and health services,” Chamie writes. “The unprecedented shift towards a larger proportion of older persons and concomitant declines in workers is gradually and inexorably necessitating redesign of national economies.” In 1950, the world’s median age was 23, allowing about 12 people of working age per elderly individual; today the median age is about 30, with eight people of working age per elderly individual. Countries risk economic chaos by not planning ahead to the challenges of aging populations. Options include increased immigration, incentives on fertility, higher retirement ages, and reduced benefits in retirement and health care for the elderly.

China’s one child policy has another set of victims: the lonely elderly bereft of family life.

UN sustainability goals should not overlook population growth centered in the poor, least developed countries.

President Barack Obama unveiled one of the most sweeping changes to the U.S. immigration system in decades, shielding millions from deportation.

Stratfor Editor-in-Chief David Judson and Founder and Chairman George Friedman discuss the United States and Mexico’s unique relationship, the history of migration between the two and the demographic dynamics that will dominate the future.

Financial realities and lifestyle options are compelling young Canadians to live in the downtown cores of the country’s cities.