ABSTRACT

Second, population for most countries has the distinction of being the socio-economic variable easiest to forecast with accuracy over the medium to long term: for 80% or more of all the people expected to be living a decade hence are already born. Demographers usually know a great deal about trends in birth rates and mortality rates by age, so that the number of people in each age cohort can be forecast ten years or so out with a relatively high degree of accuracy.