Declining birth rates will permanently alter the world's economy.

Question

"A new study by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) says that declining birth rates will permanently alter the demographic makeup of the world’s largest economies over the next decade."

Answer 1

This claim is true, as the decline in birth rates across the world will lead to a shift in age demographics of the populations of leading countries, altering the makeup of their workforce. For example, the World Economic Forum projects a significant decline in the ratio of working-age individuals to retired people from 3:1 today to 2:1 by 2035. This will contribute to an increased dependence on government spending and reduced economic growth that will undoubtedly affect global economic structures.

https://www.economicshelp.org/blog/166908/development/impact-of-falling-birth-rates/

https://www.weforum.org/stories/2021/06/birthrates-declining-globally-why-matters/

Answer 2

I believe that this article is exaggerating an issue. The study presented by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) cited in the article focuses on the declining birth rates which hold to be true but no graph or statistic shows direct correlation to labor shortage and affects. There is statistics about perceived challenges, nothing that cannot be reversed as stated in the title "permanently alter the demographic makeup of the world’s largest economies." The labor shortage affect on the market however is shown to be true regarding the analysis by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis cited in the article. Still, it does not state anything about birth rates and permanent affects on the economy.

Answer 3

While it is true that birth rates have been declining in recent decades, I believe this article is exaggerating the issue. In both its sources and my own research, I was unable to come up with specific statistics on how the low birth rate will effect the workforce, and I was certainly unable to find anything about the permanence of this. In fact, I was able to find several articles suggesting many different ways a country can attempt to bring up the birthrate. In an interview with BBC, Sarah Harper, a professor of gerontology (the study of aging), stated that this is actually a problem that we've known was going to occur, and should have made precautions for.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c72p2vgd21no

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4255510/