Demography is destiny

We are living longer and technology development is rushing forward. The changing demographics have emerged as one of the meta trends that will affect our communities and markets the most. But how? Today we know that the Rome Club's crisis message in the 70s about a catastrophic overcrowding was completely wrong. Innovation, entrepreneurship and capitalism will once again create new tools that can help us deal with many of the challenges we face. But politics needs to prepare better today, when old systems and thought patterns are challenged by an aging population that places ever higher demands, not least on welfare.

The Stiftelsen Fritt Näringsliv (The Swedish Free Enterprise Foundation) is hosting a conference to discuss these issues. Invited are the foremost thinkers in the subject and the most important political actors who have to deal with developments in Sweden. Wolfgang Lutz will give a keynote titled "Migration and demographics: A complicated history" on the second day of the conference. 

Lutz is leading the Centre of Expertise on Population and Migration (CEPAM), a collaboration between IIASA’s World Population Program and the JRC, that was launched in to provide comprehensive assessments of the drivers of possible future migration to Europe and study the implications of alternative future migration scenarios that could help to inform European policies from 2019 onwards. In 2018, CEPAM launched their first book titled "Demographic and human capital scenarios for the 21^st century" presenting an essential background study for that work. In 2019, CEPAM published flagship report on migration, population and education scenarios for the EU.

Lutz is also one of 15 eminent scientists, appointed by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, serving as independent group to produce a Global Sustainable Development Report (GSDR) with the aim to inform the high-level political forum on sustainable development when it meets under the auspices of the United Nations General Assembly to review the progress made on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The latest GSDR titled The Future is Now: Science for Achieving Sustainable Development was launched in September 2019 and received global attention.

For more information please visit the event website. or contact . 

Last edited: 15 November 2019