EconAir

    OVERVIEW Much of this is taken from the summary of the longer and more detailed Global Demographics and Population Projections This is a summary and overview of the demographics and population projection essays on this blog (links below). The world is at the beginning of a major shift in population, from large population increases since 1950 to decreasing populations in many countries and, in the long run, in the world as a whole. This historical shift in global and national populations will have a big influence on what happens in the future.   In summary, ·        Huge population increases since 1900, especially after 1950. ·        Because of a big decrease in birth rates, global population will increase until the 2060s and then start to decrease. ·        Some countries are already seeing a population decrease. More will follow in the near future, including the United States. Yearly pop...

The Future Manufacturing Labor Force   SUMMARY This post is a summary of some of the themes of previous posts on demographic and population projections, with an emphasis on how demographics impact economic growth. See bibliography at the end of this post. For a list of all blog posts on a wide variety of topics, see  List of Posts by Topic   on my blog.   Almost all countries outside of Africa are already facing or will soon face below replacement birth rates. Without immigration, this could lead first to smaller labor forces with greater numbers of retired citizens. Eventually, however, both the number of workers and retired citizens will decrease. During both stages of the transition, there will be issues of how to increase total output, maintain standards of living, and allocate income between the two major age groups. For background, see  Global Demographics and Population Projections .   Population and economies can growth even if birth rates are below...