Demographics
The population structure of a country has strong implications for its economic future. As an example let us use my home country Germany (Table 1):
| Age group | Size | Sub-groups |
Elderly: > 65 years | 18 Mio | |
Working Age: 21 ... 65 years
| 49 Mio | (56 ... 65 years: 13 Mio)
|
| Youth: < 21 years | 16 Mio | (11 ... 20 years: 8 Mio) |
| Total | 83 Mio (49% male, 51% female) | German citizens: 71 Mio Foreigners: 12 Mio |
Germany is an aging society. In the next 10 years the boomer generation with 13 Mio people, who are between 56 and 65 years old today, will retire, while only 8 Mio young people will enter their working age years. That is, assuming no major change in migration and retirement age, the working age population will shrink by 5 Mio = 10 % in the next 10 years.
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