The Impact of Population Ageing on Economic Growth

The Impact of Population Ageing on Economic Growth
Mingsheng Li
Introduction
In the previous year's demographic changes have been posing a serious policy problem in the industrialized world. As a result, this has raised more concern among various economists, creating more arguments on population aging and economic output. Demographic factors are crucial as they have a significant impact on various socio-economic aspects. In the United States, there have been economic developments that have resulted in several changes. For instance, due to family planning, fertility rates have moved from high to low. On the other hand, with increased living standards and health conditions, the mortality rates have reduced. As a result, life expectancy has gone up, leading to a higher population of older people. Due to these changes, there is a great need to study population aging on economic growth.
According to the World Health Organization, an aging society refers to that community where more than 7 percent of its population is aged 65 years or more. It also states that for a society to be declared aged, the age group that is above 65 years must be 14 percent or more of the total population. On the other hand, if this age group accounts for more than 20 percent of the whole population, society is hyper-aged. Like most countries across the world, the U.S. is an aging society. Data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2004 indicates that one in every five American citizens will be aged above 65. This will be above the previous data, which indicated that by 2000 only one American out of eight was above the age of 65 years. Furthermore, the data shows that by 2040 the number aged 85 and above will nearly multiply. Based on these data, it is clear that America's aging society will continue to go up, which will not be different from China. This research focuses on China and demonstrates why population regulation policies resulting in slow reproduction and the growth of the aged population are likely to cause slow production and the decline of these economies.
There several reasons as to why I chose to research the topic of the impact of population aging on economic growth. First, in the 21st century, the effect of aging and economic growth is becoming realistic since people are more learned and can quickly notice every change that takes place every day. People realize the rise in government taxes due to the reduced number of people working, as most of the population in many countries is having older people than young ones. Also, they are noticing the increased demand for public services that cater to older adults. Ironically, all these services require a growing economy to support them. Therefore, researching and gathering information on this issue would be necessary as its results would help people make the proper judgment concerning the economic situation, development planning, and rational economic. My interest in this paper is to study the population aging mechanism since it presents and future social and economic issues. This information will play a significant role in enabling other researchers to develop theories that can be used or improved to help solve the problems related to population aging and economic growth.
This research...