The impact of shifting demographics

Population explosion still key driver of global markets

Projections of population growth help us to understand how the centre of economic gravity will shift east and south.

It took all of human history up to 1803 for the global population to reach one billion people. It took only 12 years between 1999 and 2011 to grow by an extra billion from six to seven billion. Of course, although population growth has been exponential, this will not continue. Its growth rate is slowing. What does a declining population mean for Japan? China's demographic decline will be striking. The country's population will decline by 400 million people between 2050 and 2100. This is without historical precedent. Meanwhile, India's will reach 1.5 billion, 500 million more tha...