Demographics, Growth, and Prosperity

«Ageing Europe, Ageing Switzerland – Consequences and Challenges»

Speech by Rainer Münz (in German)

Head of research and development at Erste Bank and Senior Fellow at the Hamburg Institute of International Economics

Demographic ageing is a global development. The number of people over the age of 65 is growing rapidly worldwide due to steadily increasing life expectancy. In the middle of the 20th century, there were around 130 million older people. By 2005, this figure had risen to 475 million. In the same period, the proportion of people over 65 has increased from 5.2 % to around 7.4 %. By 2050, their number will triple to 1.5 billion and their share of the global population will rise to 16%.

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Text of the Speech

«Global Demographic Outlook to 2025: Risks and Opportunities for the World Economy»

Speech by Nicholas Eberstadt

American political economist

Ladies and Gentlemen: The 20 century saw an absolutely unprecedented historical event in demographic terms. Between 1900 and 2000, the human population almost quadrupled, under the sway of the so-called world population explosion. In absolute and in relative terms, nothing so rapid or dramatic had ever happened before in human history. This population explosion was driven entirely by a reduction in mortality.

The full text of the speech is available as a PDF here:

Text of the Speech