103802 v2 Demography, Aging, and Mobility in the ECA Region: Public Disclosure Authorized A Critical Overview of Trends and Future Challenges November 7, 2013 Timothy Heleniak1 Sudharshan Canagarajah Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized The World Bank Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Unit Europe and Central Asia Region The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors, and do not reflect the view of the World Bank Group. Public Disclosure Authorized 1 Department of Geography, University of Maryland (
[email protected]). Sudharshan Canagarajah, Lead Economist and Coordinator of MiRPAL program. 1 SUMMARY The countries of the Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region are confronting a number of demographic challenges over the coming decades. These include shrinking populations and labor forces because of below replacement-level fertility and older age structures, high mortality in a large portion of the region, aging populations and high dependency ratios, shrinking youth populations and less new entrants to the labor force, and relatively immobile populations. Sixteen ECA countries are among twenty in the world where the number of deaths exceed the number of births. Fertility in many ECA countries are at levels demographers refer to as “lowest- low” fertility where the number of births per woman is less than 1.3. A large portion of the population in the ECA region live in countries where male mortality is far below what is expected given their income and levels of development. Several ECA countries have among the oldest median age populations in the world. This paper reviews recent past and projected population trends for the countries of the ECA region, including implications of the expected demographic trends over the next two decades.