The Power of Numbers: Why Europe Needs to Get Younger

Over the next fifty years Japan, Russia and many European Countries face a sustained, outright fall in population - something that has never happened in any advanced economy. For most other European nations the prospect is one of ageing stagnation and high immigration. In stark contrast to the developed countries of the first world, across Asia, Africa, the Middle East and the Americas population numbers are rising rapidly and will continue to do so for some time yet. By 2050 most demographers think that population growth in the developing world will also stall. Long before that happens, however, demographic divergence between today’s developed and developing worlds will have revolutionized the economic, political and military balance of power across the world. The Power of Numbers will set out the figures and projections, identify the winners and losers and conflicts that are likely to result from the coming upheaval.

Richard Erhman was Government special adviser in the Employment Department and the Northern Ireland Office during the 1980s. In the 1990s he was chief leader writer of The Daily Telegraph, and is now a consultant director of the Think Tank Policy Exchange. He also runs a commercial property company.