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Demographics

In the second episode in this five part series, Ruth Alexander examines how economic power might shift as the world’s population changes.

Who we are, how many of us there are and where we live will change the economies of the future. Africa’s population will boom spectacularly, creating a huge new workforce in countries like Nigeria. That’s a great opportunity, but one with serious risks attached. Europe will shrink. Asia is ageing. In this edition of Economic Tectonics, Ruth Alexander looks at the near future – a future we can already see, thanks to accurate statistical modelling – to find out how economic power will shift as the world’s population changes.

Producer: Ben Carter

(Image: People gathered as an arrow, Credit: Arthimedes/Shutterstock)

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23 minutes

Last on

Sun 19 Mar 201709:06GMT

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