Fertility rates across Europe are now so low that the continent’s population is likely to drop markedly over the next 50 years and affect its ability to compete and take care of pension obligations, say observers.
The size of Europe’s population implosion is staggering:
The consequences of a falling population are severe:
This will severely strain government finances in the future. Many countries, like Germany and Italy, are already paying nearly 30 percent of revenues on pensions.
A recent report from the French Institute of International Relations predicts that, by the middle of the century, the EU’s Gross Domestic Product will be growing at just over 1 percent a year compared with more than 2 percent in North America and at least 2.5 percent in China. The EU, the report gloomily concludes, faces a “slow but inexorable ‘exit from history’ “.
Source: Europe’s Population Implosion, Economist, July 17th, 2003.
For text: http://www.economist.com/world/europe/displayStory.cfm?story_id=1923383
For more on Demographics http://www.ncpa.org/iss/soc/
FMF Policy Bulletin/ 26 August 2003
