What can we expect in the next half-century? Based on the indicators that are available, we can make a few points.
All signs suggest that there will be continued but slowing population growth. This continued growth will result in the addition of roughly 3 billion people to the world population, before it stabilises around 2050 at about 9 billion. Managing this increase will be an enormous challenge, and the economic consequences of failing to do so could be severe.
-The world's population is ageing, and the growth in the sheer number of elderly people will be huge.
-International migration will continue, but the extent is unclear. The pressures that encourage people to migrate – above all the lure of greater economic well-being in the developed countries – will undoubtedly persist, but the strength of countervailing policy restrictions that could substantially staunch the flow of migrants is impossible to predict.
-Urbanization will continue, but here, too, the pace is impossible to predict. Greater economic opportunities in the cities will surely continue to attract migrants from rural areas, but environmental and social problems may stymie growth.