Who will keep the engine running when the next generation wants to become Youtubers?

Within the great variety of topics that younger generations worry about – climate change, equality, peace, etc. – demographics is not really seen as a pressing matter. The fact that the population is aging is widely known, but the consequences of this trend seem to be less often on people’s minds. This is probably the result of humans being short-term thinkers and an aging population is a slow process without obviously visible effects: there are no melting ice caps involved. At least, not right now. But who will keep our economy going when we are aging so fast? The old saying goes that “you can’t fight demographics”, but can we at least adapt to it?

Europe’s demographics

The baseline forecast from Eurostat suggests that the population in the EU will start shrinking from 2025 onwards. The pace of shrinking is however highly dependent on immigration. With conservative right-wing governments on the rise in large parts of Europe, it is not unlikely that immigration will be slower than initially expected. Eurostat’s “Lower Migration scenario” predicts a population loss of 23 million between 2023 and 2050. That’s more than twice the population of Sweden.