WARC (December 4)
Fully 45% of Malaysia’s population is made up of Millennials, “many of whom are digital natives.” As a result, “businesses looking to expand in Malaysia need to offer digital wallet payment options, as these cover a much greater proportion of the population than credit cards.” The diverse e-money options are dominated by outsiders, only 5 of the 46 e-money licenses “have gone to players in the traditional banking space.”
Tags: Banking, Credit cards, Digital natives, Digital wallet, E-money, Malaysia, Millennials, Population
CBS News (October 27)
In Japan almost 1,000 “towns and villages face extinction because the country is simply running out of people. Japan’s population peaked several years ago, at 128 million in 2011. And if the dire forecasts come true, Japan will have as few as 59 million people by 2100.” This is not some distant phenomenon. “What’s happening in Japan is a preview of what many Western countries, including the United States, will soon face.”
Tags: Dire, Extinction, Forecasts, Japan, Population, Preview, Towns, Villages
Bloomberg (July 16)
“South Korea is headed for a demographic crash,” with a fertility rate roughly half the replacement rate of 2.1. In 2018, it “fell to a record low of 0.98—much lower even than in countries such as Japan, whose rate is above 1.4.” By 2080, South Korea’s current “population of 51 million could fall by a third.”
The Economist (March 9)
Interest in Africa is booming. “Outsiders have noticed that the continent is important and becoming more so, not least because of its growing share of the global population (by 2025 the UN predicts that there will be more Africans than Chinese people). Governments and businesses from all around the world are rushing to strengthen diplomatic, strategic and commercial ties. This creates vast opportunities. If Africa handles the new scramble wisely, the main winners will be Africans themselves.”
Tags: Africa, Booming, Businesses, China, Diplomatic, Governments, Population, Strategic, UN
Wall Street Journal (May 17)
“American women are having children at the lowest rate on record, with the number of babies born in the U.S. last year dropping to a 30-year low…. The figures suggest that a number of women who put off having babies after the 2007-09 recession are forgoing them altogether.” This could spell trouble as America’s aging population is already “creating a funding imbalance that strains the social safety net that supports the elderly.”
Tags: Aging, Babies, Children, Elderly, Funding, Population, Recession, Safety net, U.S., Women
Bloomberg Businessweek (February 14)
After enjoying a modest “baby bump,” births in China “are again trending down, despite the two-child policy.” Beijing’s inability “to ignite a baby boom is cause for concern in policy circles.” Recently, the China Daily, a state-owned newspaper, wrote, “There is growing concern that the country may experience a demographic time bomb, because in the decades to come the number of young people is likely to fall below the number required to maintain an optimum level of employment.” For that matter, China’s working-age population has “been shrinking since 2012 and fell by 5 million last year.”0
Tags: Baby bump, Births, China, China Daily, Concern, Demographic time bomb, Optimum employment, Population, Shrinking, Working-age
The Economist (January 13)
“To many, India feels like the heir apparent. Its population will soon overtake its Asian rival’s. It occasionally grows at the kind of pace that propelled China to the status of economic superpower.” But there is one big snag in many marketers’ dreams: India’s middle class “scarcely exists.” Only 8 million Indian adults make $20,000 annually and “the chances of India developing a middle class to match the Middle Kingdom’s are being throttled by growing inequality.”
Tags: China, Economic superpower, Growth, India, Inequality, Middle class, Population
Bloomberg (August 3)
“Something may be stirring deep within Japan’s labor market. The country’s aging and shrinking population is traditionally thought of as a deflationary factor, driving down potential growth. Yet after years of resisting wage hikes, companies are starting to recognize the need to lock in staff before they literally disappear.”0
Tags: Aging, Deflationary, Growth, Japan, Labor market, Population, Shrinking, Staff, Wage hikes
National Geographic (June 18)
“Dangerous heatwaves are far more common than anyone realized, killing people in more than 60 different parts of the world every year.” Approximately “30 percent of the world’s population is currently exposed to potentially deadly heat for 20 days per year or more—and like a growing forest fire, climate change is spreading this extreme heat.” Barring major reductions in GHG emissions, “up to 75 percent of people could face deadly heatwaves by 2100.”
Tags: Climate change, Dangerous, Deadly, Extreme heat, Forest fire, GHG emissions, Heatwaves, Population
The Economist (April 15)
“Despite an influx of 1.2m refugees over the past two years, Germany’s population faces near-irreversible decline. According to predictions from the UN in 2015, two in five Germans will be over 60 by 2050 and Europe’s oldest country will have shrunk to 75m from 82m.”
