This article describes the demographic challenges that we face. The global population did not reach one billion until the early 1800's. We are now approaching seven billion and heading towards 10 billion. Population density is also shifting. Europe was several times larger in population than Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) a short while ago. It won't be long before SSA has several times the population of Europe. SSA will even overtake India in population not too long after India passes China in population.
The challenges of growing population, as well as the growth in household formation, will present enormous challenges. So will the aging of our population. There will be fewer of working age to support those above 65 who have typically left the labor force.
Some of these challenges are described in this article. One of the problems that we face in dealing with the challenges is that our institutions and households typically plan and organize activities to deal with short term problems and goals. We seldom think about the problem of providing for the needs of future generations. Intergenerational social justice is a problem that looms larger on the horizon.
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