A declining fertility rate is causing Ireland’s working-age population to fall. Simultaneously, retirees are living longer and forming an ever-larger part of the population. These factors are causing an extraordinary decline in the number of working-age people available to support the expanding number of retirees.

With the lowest current fertility rate across the Americas (1.1%), Chile’s working-age population is shrinking. Simultaneously, retirees are living longer and forming an ever-larger part of the population. These factors are causing an extraordinary decline in the number of working-age people available to support the expanding number of retirees.

Pakistan’s rating has declined on the - World Economics Governance Index - over the last decade. Standards have fallen in the country across data reflecting corruption, the rule of law, press freedom and political rights.

Decades of low fertility are causing the working-age population of Greece to fall. Simultaneously, retirees are living longer and forming an ever-larger part of the population. These factors are causing an extraordinary decline in the number of working-age people available to support the expanding number of retirees.

Much of the developed world is experiencing rapidly falling fertility rates. Attempts to reverse this fall – which in most developed countries has dropped far below the replacement threshold - have been unsuccessful so far.

Decades of low fertility are causing Belarus’s working-age population to fall. Simultaneously, retirees are living longer and forming an ever-larger part of the population. These factors are causing an extraordinary decline in the number of working-age people available to support the expanding number of retirees.

The world economy has radically changed over the past decade. The Asian share of global GDP has risen from about 48%, and is likely to be around 58% by 2030.

Back around the time of the Great Financial Crisis, a book called The China Price created a lot of comment. Business Week called The China Price, the scariest three words in US Industry. The message was, cut your price by at least 30% or lose your customers. And scariest of all, media coverage suggested, a massive shift in economic power was underway. - - Looking back, we can see that a massive shift in economic power really did take place. In Purchasing Power Parity terms, US GDP is now significantly smaller than Chinas.

The economic performance of East Asia, led by China, has been remarkable in the past decade. From 2015 to 2025, East Asia contributed 42.7% of all global GDP growth (31.2% from China alone), more than double the share of any other region. The broader Asia-Pacific region showed impressive dynamism, accounting for 70.0% of the world’s economic expansion.

India’s population is set to more than quadruple from 1950 to 2050, reaching a staggering 1.68 billion. The broader Asia region dominates the top ten ranking, accounting for half of the listed nations. China’s population is the only one in the top ten estimated to fall from - 2023 to 2050 - , moving from 1.42 billion to 1.26 billion.

A declining fertility rate is causing Finland’s working-age population to fall. Simultaneously, retirees are living longer and forming an ever-larger part of the population. These factors are causing an extraordinary decline in the number of working-age people available to support the expanding number of retirees.

Decades of low fertility are causing Slovakia’s working-age population to fall. Simultaneously, retirees are living longer and forming an ever-larger part of the population. These factors are causing an extraordinary decline in the number of working-age people available to support the expanding number of retirees.

Back around the time of the Great Financial Crisis, a book called The China Price created a lot of comment. Business Week called The China Price, the scariest three words in US Industry. The message was, cut your price by at least 30% or lose your customers. And scariest of all, media coverage suggested, a massive shift in economic power was underway. - - Looking back, we can see that a massive shift in economic power really did take place. In Purchasing Power Parity terms, US GDP is now significantly smaller than Chinas.

Over the past decade China has contributed 31.1% to global growth, compared with the USAs contribution of 9.2%. Compound Annual Growth over the last 3 years has been 4.6%, near double the USA rate. Few predict Chinas growth differential in relation to the USA will disappear in the near future.

South Korea, and Taiwan have achieved GDP per head of around 80% of the US level, starting from very close to poverty. If China can raise GDP per head to just 50%+ of US levels (hardly an impossible task given its record over the last 40 years), it will have a GDP twice that of the US. If Chinas GDP per capita gets anywhere near those achieved in South Korea, its economy will approach three times the size of the US.

Decades of falling fertility are causing the working-age population of South Korea to fall. Simultaneously, retirees are living longer and forming an ever-larger portion of the population. These factors are causing an extraordinary decline in the number of working-age people available to support the expanding number of retirees.

Decades of low fertility are causing the working-age population of Belgium to fall. Simultaneously, retirees are living longer and forming an ever-larger part of the population. These factors are causing an extraordinary decline in the number of working-age people available to support the expanding number of retirees.

As noted in our review of - Asian Governance - , Asian GDP is bigger than that of Europe, the Americas and Africa combined. Asia accounts for well over half of global GDP. And Asian GDP growth has accounted for 70% of global growth over the past decade. So, shouldnt Asia comprise 50%+ of your investments by value? - - Probably not. The problem with Asia is that this vast geographical space (however defined) includes many countries you probably wouldnt want to live in, and on whose data you cannot rely. This Thought reviews the lack of accurate GDP data in parts of Asia. World Economics defines - GDP Data Quality - using 5 measures. - - The table below shows Asian countries Data Quality Indexes split into 5 Ratings segments.

Decades of low fertility are causing the working-age population of Türkiye to fall. Simultaneously, retirees are living longer and forming an ever-larger part of the population. These factors are causing an extraordinary decline in the number of working-age people available to support the expanding number of retirees.

Fertility rates have fallen and stagnated across Europe. By 1980, most countries in Europe had already fallen below the replacement threshold. Now every single European nation is below the threshold. Various reasons have been proposed for this vast decline in fertility, such as the availability of contraception and the increase of women in the workplace.

Chinese GDP will be more than double that of the US in under a decade, if recent growth rates persist. Economic activity in China is almost certainly already approximately 54% larger than in the USA.

Peru’s fertility rate has been broadly declining since the 1990s and is now sub-replacement. Retirees are living longer and forming an ever-larger part of the population. Simultaneously, the working-age population will start to shrink by the end of this decade. These factors are causing an extraordinary decline in the number of working-age people available to support the expanding number of retirees.

Chinese GDP will be more than double that of the US in under a decade, if recent growth rates persist. Economic activity in China is almost certainly already approximately 53% larger than in the USA.

The Governance ratings of 16 out of 19 G20 countries have declined on the - World Economics Governance Index - over the last decade. This reflects falling standards across data reflecting corruption, rule of law, press freedom and political rights.

The world economy has radically changed over the past decade. The Asian share of global GDP has risen from 49%, and is likely to be around 58% by 2030.