Demography is Destiny

A shortage of women workers in China pushes up wages

Mon, 20 May 2013 02:53:24 GMT

Believe it or not, China is facing labour shortages. There is a shortage of women (I wonder why) and wages are rising. The Economist reports in this video. Read more...

Chinese Author Ma Jian and the One-Child Policy

Fri, 17 May 2013 01:39:48 GMT

More first hand testimony from inside China about the one-child policy's effects. Read more...

Bugs for Breakfast anyone?

Wed, 15 May 2013 02:38:29 GMT

A book just released by the United Nations, Edible Insects: future prospects for food and feed security, discusses the benefits that insect farming could potentially have on the environment and on the supply of food worldwide. It is certainly 'food for thought' on the various food sources we don't even tap into - especially given that the media often postulates on overpopulation and a lack of food. But would we want to? Read more...

Ageing Population = Lower Productivity Growth?

Mon, 13 May 2013 03:52:42 GMT

A report by Fredrik Nerbrand of the HSBC suggest that an ageing workforce is a less productive one. Read more...

Happy Mother’s Day!

Wed, 08 May 2013 01:59:55 GMT

A new report has been released by Save the Children entitled: "Surviving the First Day" Read more...

Volunteering in New Zealand

Mon, 06 May 2013 04:47:41 GMT

Have changes in our society made volunteering a dying art? Read more...

The Orthodox Will Inherit the Earth (Or at least their Children Will)

Fri, 03 May 2013 04:10:00 GMT

In a recent issue of Time magazine (at least the online version) Mary Eberstadt made the claim that “In the War Over Christianity, Orthodoxy is Winning”. Read more...

Spain is Shrinking

Thu, 02 May 2013 00:40:17 GMT

Spain's population has declined in 2012. Is this the start of a longterm trend? Read more...

World’s Oldest Man Turns 116

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 01:03:33 GMT

Ten days ago on the 19th of April, the world’s oldest person celebrated his 116th birthday in Kyoto, Japan, becoming the oldest person ever (well at least that we know of!). He was born all the way back in 1897. Will we rush to study his diet, exercise regime and skincare products? Read more...

ANZAC Day

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 01:42:01 GMT

A look at the impact of the First World War on Australia and New Zealand for ANZAC Day. Read more...

USA’s Population Crisis: Hogwash?

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 08:25:43 GMT

A recent opinion piece in the NYTimes tries to tell us that the USA has no fertility crisis. Read more...

Britain proposes longer school days

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 09:29:41 GMT

The demography of society is constantly changing. Michael Gove, the British Education Secretary, considers that it has changed so much since the current education system was put in place that it needs an overhaul to ensure optimal economic success. However, we must first know the values we are trying to achieve via our economic success, before we very likely sacrifice those very things in its name. Read more...

One Child Policy Won’t Keep China Fed

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 07:12:28 GMT

According to researchers at Stanford University, the one-child policy does not ensure Chinese food security. Read more...

Urban Living and Population Growth

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 22:40:29 GMT

Is urban living affecting how we view population growth? Read more...

Population will stabilise by 2050 According to Physics

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 03:39:15 GMT

Researchers in Madrid are predicting that the planet's population will stop growing by 2050. Read more...

The New Gold Rush

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 04:42:43 GMT

More and more people continue to be attracted to the money to be made in Western Australia. New figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) show that Western Australia’s population grew by 3.4%, or nearly 82,000 people, over the 12 months to September 2012. According to the Director of ABS Demography, Bjorn Jarvis, this is the highest annual growth rate since the early 1970’s. Read more...

Something is Unbegotten in the State of Denmark

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 07:53:47 GMT

Danish researchers are desperate for their country's birthrate to increase. Read more...

Easter Around the World

Sun, 31 Mar 2013 01:10:18 GMT

Even in countries where Christianity is a minority religion, Easter is passionately celebrated. Happy Easter! Read more...

More immigrants proposed for America (well officially at least)

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 06:23:06 GMT

The US continues to debate what should be done with the country’s many illegal immigrants who currently pay no tax. New proposed legislation could put the more than 10 million illegal immigrants on the road to citizenship, along with allowing thousands of new workers in to the country. However, it will also hold businesses more responsible for verifying that all their employees are legal citizens. If passed, the legislation will mean the most significant changes to US immigration law in nearly 30 years. Read more...

“A War on Fertility is an Act of Cultural and Economic Suicide”

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 20:54:08 GMT

Have more abortions - after all, each child costs the state a lot of money! Read more...

The EU - 20 years of Ageing and Growing

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 02:12:08 GMT

The EU has released a summary of demographic changes to its member states between 1990 and 2012. The results are not overly surprising. Read more...

Avoiding the biggest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history

Sun, 24 Mar 2013 23:51:44 GMT

We reported on Detroit’s population problems back in October last year. Not surprisingly, with the loss of 25% of its population in the last ten years, those problems have not gone away. A new state-imposed manager, Kevyn Orr, started just yesterday and his job is to try to turn the crumbling city around. First on his agenda is public safety. However, his overall goal is to avoid taking Detroit to the bankruptcy court, which would be the biggest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history. Read more...

Changes to One-Child Policy Too Late?

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 03:44:33 GMT

It seems as if moves to change China's one-child policy will be too late to arrest demogrpahic decline. Read more...

Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 03:43:31 GMT

China and the one-child policy. What did Stalin say about tragedies and statistics? Read more...

Back to School for Aging Swedes

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 00:10:52 GMT

Sweden, grappling with increasing longevity, is considering both raising the retirement age to 75 and a state education plan for people in their 50s. Will the future see us leaving school at 18 to return for re-training when we’re 50? No matter what the solution, current welfare expectations can no longer be met if the retirement age (and mindset) remains as it is. Read more...

Pope Francis and the Church he Must Shepherd

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 04:17:00 GMT

A state of the Church today in numbers. Read more...

More Internet News (Gleaned From the Internet)

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 02:41:18 GMT

The UN releases more information about the spread of mobile phones and the internet. Read more...

Increasing Longevity impacts the Papacy

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 06:10:30 GMT

In today's guest post, Denyse O'Leary ponders what our increased longevity means for the Papacy, along with the reasons behind it. Due to medical advances, popes (like other people) live much longer than they used to—and might easily outlive their cognitive abilities, a fact that Benedict clearly recognized and had begun to plan for years ago. Read more...

How exciting can a census be?

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 03:07:01 GMT

The NZ census night - WOOOHOOO! Read more...

Christianity in the Middle East

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 03:52:21 GMT

The story of Christianity in the Middle East is more complex that it appears. Read more...

Japanese politician suggests banning abortion to increase birthrates

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 02:04:09 GMT

It is common knowledge that Japan is in more economic trouble than most as a result of its low birth rate, and it seems that Japanese politicians are taking the situation increasingly seriously. One Japanese politician has come up with a fairly commonsensible plan to increase the country’s ailing birth rate – ban abortions. Read more...

Is Japan’s Population Decline Worse than Previously Thought?

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 21:47:50 GMT

Some dodgy population statistics from Japan. Read more...

I Won’t Mention the “E-Word” Again! Promise!

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 04:00:54 GMT

Paul Ehrlich is still predicting mass famine - 45 years on... Read more...

Canadians argue for family taxation

Sat, 23 Feb 2013 04:35:25 GMT

It seems that in Canada tough family finances are getting in the way of people having more children, even though they would actually like to do so. This needs to change if we are to overcome the problem of population aging. What is most interesting, however, is that Canadians would actually like to have more children – so there is the potential for change. The World Values Survey found that the mean ideal number of children for Canadian families was 2.7, compared to the 1.63 they are currently having (the replacement rate is 2.1). Read more...

Singapore’s rocky search for more migrants

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 08:39:26 GMT

Singapore's government is facing dissent over its plans to bring in more migrants to make up for a low birth rate. Read more...

Hey! Old People! Stop being a burden on the rest of us!

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 22:02:35 GMT

The Japanese finance minister has decided that his party doesn't need the elderly vote. Read more...

Can we always trust the statistics we read?

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 00:26:18 GMT

While perhaps not strictly demography, his latest article in The Telegraph is also an interesting critique of how widely circulated and believed statistics can turn out to be quite wrong. He points out in his opinion piece yesterday the fairly shocking news that the image of the Magdalene laundries in Ireland promoted by the media has been found to be quite false: Read more...

Too Old to Work?

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 04:08:50 GMT

The Pope has resigned at 85, should we be looking again at when we become too old to work? Read more...

Family friendly policies the answer to demographic woes?

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 00:57:56 GMT

This week I recommend you to an interesting interview conducted by John Rosen on the Wall Street Journal website with the author of a new book called “What to expect when no one’s expecting”. You can find it here. The author, Jonathan Last, succinctly summarises many of the challenges facing the world as a result of low birth rates. We only have to look like countries like Greece to see that we can’t afford entitlements, for example, without a young working population paying taxes. Read more...

Waitangi Day and Japan

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 05:44:57 GMT

Happy Waitangi Day! And what does the future hold for Japan? Read more...

UK Government: Please, Don’t Come! Part II

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 04:09:17 GMT

Romania is not happy with the UK's attempts to limit Romanian migrants. Read more...

UK Government: Please, Don’t Come!

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 20:35:24 GMT

The UK government is trying to convince Bulgarians and Romanians that the UK is not what it's cracked up to be. Read more...

New Head of UN Population Division

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:25:37 GMT

The UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs has appointed a new head for its Population Division. Read more...

Fetal health not only a female affair

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 08:53:50 GMT

While most people are used to considering the female ticking body clock, we tend to think that men have a lot more time. Though true is one sense, if we want healthy babies maybe they too should be considering the age factor. An interesting article in the New Republic highlights this issue among many others associated with the rising age of parents – it’s well worth a read. Read more...

Fewer Girls = A More Violent World

Sun, 27 Jan 2013 03:43:16 GMT

More on gendercide in India and China. Read more...

Humanity is a “plague”: Attenborough

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 08:17:50 GMT

Sir David Attenborough has labelled humanity a "plague". Charming. Read more...

An Asian population spike

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 10:46:09 GMT

In Taiwan, between January and September 2012, births were up 14.5 percent versus the same period in 2011. Vietnam saw an additional 61,375 babies born in the first five months of 2012—a spike of 13.5 percent from the previous year. Similar statistics are not yet available for China, but a dip in the birthrate in 2011—a mere rabbit year—suggests that couples may have been postponing procreation, says the University of North Carolina demographer Cai Yong (whose own dragon baby was born last February). Read more...

USA - An Unhealthy Nation?

Wed, 16 Jan 2013 23:36:00 GMT

A new report details the USA's depressing health statistics. Read more...

Happy New Year!

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 20:38:13 GMT

Happy New Year! And a story about diabetes, China and the womb. Read more...

China’s ‘little emperors’ less entrepreneurial

Sun, 13 Jan 2013 08:11:45 GMT

A recently released Australian study has shown some interesting psychological effects of China’s one child policy introduced in 1979; effects which could have economic consequences for China. The study "Little Emperors: Behavioral Impacts of China's One-Child Policy", was published in the journal “Science” and involved 421 Beijing residents born between 1975 and 1983. Read more...