Western policy makers have been grappling with the global
economic crisis and its legacy for eight years. Slow growth,
deflation and austerity risk becoming the 'new normal' for
many countries. Faced with such pressing threats it is no surprise
that profound, long-term shifts in the economy and in society are
getting less attention.
Demographic change is one such issue.
The world is in the midst of a remarkable population boom, one
that has gathered pace since the onset of the Industrial
revolution. It is estimated that the population of the world was
about five million in 10,000BC and that it had reached about 300
million by the birth of Christ. It took almost 2000 years, until
the early nineteenth century, to reach one billion. Since then
growth has been explosive, doubling in the hundred years to 1920,
to reach two billion, rising to three billion by 1960 and 7.4
billion today. The United Nations' Population Division
estimates that that world population will
