AI in Multidimensional Signals Analysis and Processing: Proceedings of the 3DIT-MSP&DL 2024

If we are to avoid a directionless, haphazard road, we need to take control and prepare for the future, and this begins by having a better understanding of what demography is telling us about the future. —Clint Laurent

Imagine the enormous advantage a corporate strategist or marketing professional in, say, 1990 would have had if they’d had access to a technology that permitted them to see, with a high degree of accuracy, the epic economic and social shifts that would occur over the next couple of decades. Imagine how they could have used their advance knowledge of the emergence of the massive Chinese middle class or the emergence of the global affluent consumer.

Now imagine that you had such a fantastic instrument at your disposal. What kind of insights might it provide into how the world will develop over the next twenty years? What impact would that information have on your organisation’s success?

Tomorrow’s World takes such speculation out of the realm of science fiction and into the real world. Written by the founder and Managing Director of Global Demographics Ltd., a top demographic agency that consults with companies worldwide on market and business planning, it maps out the world’s near future as seen through the lens of demography.

Must reading for business leaders, financial analysts, marketers, brand managers, government policymakers and economists, Tomorrow’s World:

• Provides key demographic data for 74 countries, comprising 79% of the world’s population and 92% of global GDP
• Offers coverage of significant changes, over the next two decades, in population, households, labour force, household incomes, consumption, environment and other factors
• Distills official census results and data from a range of major indices for all 74 nations down into demographic patterns across 7 major regions for easy analysis
• Treats India and China (each of which comprises 20% of the world’s population) as separate regions
• Groups richer nations, including Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Macau, Australia, and New Zealand, together as a discrete region
• Treats poorer nations, such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, as separate regions
• Supplies you with a sounding board against which to test the veracity of your current assumptions and the fitness of your strategy and long-term business planning

Trying to steer your organisation into the future without all the facts in hand is like going into battle with an unloaded gun. Read Tomorrow’s World and arm yourself with the information and analysis you need to form a clear picture of how our socio-economic landscape will evolve over the next two decades, target the most promising emerging business and investment opportunities and identify the most serious threats to your ongoing success.

Why you should read this book

This book provides a global perspective of how the nature of demographics, household incomes, and expenditure patterns might be expected to change over the next twenty years. It is written without a particular bias (for example, to sell investments) and, as a result, provides insights into what the world might be like in the future, which is at odds with what is frequently promoted. For example:

• While Japan is on average getting older, so is the changing nature of its employment practices such that the number of dependents per employed person remains one of the lowest in the world. It will have enough workers to support the aged population (and grow the economy) for the next 20 years.
• India has a potential demographic dividend in terms of a large number of persons reaching working age. However, the economy will only benefit if they can find employment—at the rate of 6 million extra jobs a year for the next two decades.
• Globally, the youth market is not a growth segment. The total number of persons under the age of 25 years declines by 89 million persons in the next 20 years. There are few countries that are exceptions to this trend. The 40-plus age group provides much greater growth potential in both revenue and number of customers.
• China’s workforce will inevitably decline in absolute numbers by 18% over the next 20 years (by 6% in the next decade). For this reason, claims that China’s total real GDP will grow at 8% per annum for the next decade are making heroic assumptions about productivity per worker.
• North America, Western Europe, and Affluent Asia—with 18% of the world’s population in 2012—account for 69% of total consumer spending. They are also expected to account for 41% of the growth in consumer spending over the next two decades.
• While India has a poor standard of education relative to the world, 49% of its labour force in 2032 will enter the labour force sometime after 2012. Therefore, getting education right now will pay dividends. Otherwise, India’s economic and political future is at risk as a result of having a large, poorly skilled working-age population struggling to find employment.
• As a result of the declining youth population, the nature of the household is changing—already, 41% of all households in the world have no person less than 19 years of age in them. In the more affluent and older countries, it is 62% of households. By 2032, this will reach 47% and 68% respectively, meaning household consumption requirements will change dramatically.