Policy Responses to Aging and Declining Populations

Harvard HKS

Around the world, increasing longevity and declining fertility are making populations much older than they used to be, and fertility is now below the long-term replacement rate in most countries, so populations will decline—an unprecedented development in modern times. This demographic revolution will have significant effects on economic growth, government budgets, healthcare costs, retirement planning, workforce and investment needs, wages and interest rates, geopolitics, and other aspects…