Towards a Definition of the ‘Depopulation Dividend’

Countries with reducing populations are exclusively wealthy. Several are so concerned about their ageing populations that they are introducing pro-natalist policies, offering incentives to increase their birth rates. Yet they overlook the possibility that age-imbalance is a temporary stage of a demographic transition towards a new, lower equilibrium, as well as the many potential advantages of a reducing population. This is what we mean by a ‘depopulation dividend’ (See: Peter Matanle’s article in Prospect magazine, 7 October 2013 ), a concept which might include some or all of the following.