The world population is expected to start shrinking within this century after hitting a peak in the mid-2080s due to lower fertility levels, particularly in China, according to the latest projection by the United Nations.

  • Lowpast@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    However, who replaces the aging workforce? Who pays for social security? Back in the 60s, it was a ratio of 6 workers per 1 retired. Now, it’s 3:1. Soon, it’ll be 2:1. That’s bad. Very bad.

    A smaller working population and a large inactive population create huge labour shortages which must be filled by migrant labour which creates additional problems.

    One solution is enabling people to work for longer but this is challenging. Do we push the retirement age to 75? What about the declining health and abilities of ther population.

    People are having children much later than normal. Births under the age of 20 have dropped 90% in the last 10 years. We are aging faster than we are replacing.