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Page added on November 18, 2014
Youth could unleash rapid economic growth
The record number of young people in the world today could unlock fast economic growth in many developing countries unless lack of access to health care and education hinder progress, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) said on Tuesday.
A window of economic and social growth occurs when the working age population becomes larger than people of non-working age and, as a result, the state faces fewer costs associated with children and the elderly.
This is caused by a shift from high to low fertility rates and from high to low mortality rates and is occurring or could occur soon in many countries, UNFPA said in its annual State of the World Population report.
“We have an unprecedented 1.8 billion young people, the largest the world has ever known and the largest the world will ever know,” UNFPA Executive Director Babatunde Osotimehin told Thomson Reuters Foundation in a phone interview.
“We have an opportunity, particularly the developing world, to take advantage of their energy, their creativity and innovation – to develop their economies andsocieties.”
However, in many poor countries, this “youth bulge” is outpacing the growth of the economy and outstripping the capacities of institutions charged with providing basic services such as education and access to the job market, the UNFPA report said.
Eighty-nine percent of the world’s youth live in less developed countries. There aren’t just more young people, their share of the population is also growing, said the report.
In Afghanistan, East Timor and fifteen countries in sub-Saharan Africa, half the population is under 18 years of age, the report said. In Chad, Niger and Uganda, half is under sixteen.
Youth in many of these countries face major challenges. For example, lack of progress in health care means that more than 2 million youths aged 10 to 19 are living with HIV and an estimated 1.3 million adolescents died from preventable or treatable diseases in 2012, according to the World Health Organization.
Another big challenge is education. Many children of school age are still not in school and those who are ready to enter the job market in less developed countries suffer from high unemployment rates, under employment or vulnerable employment. Over 73 million young people aged 15 to 24 were unemployed in 2013, making up 36 percent of global unemployment, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO).
GENDER IMBALANCE Young women are facing serious problems as they are more likely to be victims of violence and sexual exploitation than their male counterparts.
Poor or non-existent reproductive health care and harmful practices such as child marriage prevent millions of girls from getting a proper education and joining the workforce.
“They should get comprehensive sexual education…so that they know who they are, they know their bodies and vulnerabilities and they know what choices to make about themselves,” Osotimehin said, adding that sex education is controversial in some places.
23 Comments on "Youth could unleash rapid economic growth"
penury on Tue, 18th Nov 2014 11:01 am
Let me see if I understand this: the more poor young people that are present in the economy the greater the increase in the health f the nation will be. Every poor youth needs a college education in order to to reduce under employment. I do not know the author(s) of this but they need to remove there heads from their anal sphincter.
Northwest Resident on Tue, 18th Nov 2014 11:13 am
Youth could unleash riot and chaos, just like they are doing in Italy.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2213535/Students-riot-Italy-protest-austerity-measures-Greek-shipyard-workers-demonstrate-support-arrested-strikers.html
But only after they unplug their brains from their Iphones and video games.
Northwest Resident on Tue, 18th Nov 2014 11:15 am
BTW, there is not enough oil or raw materials left to unleash sustainable rapid economic growth. Forget about it. Rapid economic growth is a thing of the past. We’re heading the opposite direction, and picking up speed.
Davy on Tue, 18th Nov 2014 11:40 am
ARTICLE SAID – “We have an unprecedented 1.8 billion young people, the largest the world has ever known and the largest the world will ever know,”
Well, sounds like a lot of babies coming to me so yea rapid growth of the wrong kind at the moment. Considering the youths tendency to be idealistic expect useless demonstrations for unattainable goals. Think about radicalized youth of the ME. In general women, children, and the youth show little interest in conservation so expect more waste. I may get in trouble with that statement but that is my experience. Part of this is because they generally don’t pay the bills. Education is a huge expense that does not payoff for years so more investments in an investment starved world.
ARTICLE SAID – A window of economic and social growth occurs when the working age population becomes larger than people of non-working age and, as a result, the state faces fewer costs associated with children and the elderly.
This was once true but today we see the need for less with less. We need less growth and less consumption. If these young could be sent back to the land they may yet find a place. Many are not going to make it because life is going to become very cruel for the poor and those stuck in overpopulated urban areas. This 1.8BIL is a sobering number considering the earths carrying capacity postindustrial is 1BIL or so.
Plantagenet on Tue, 18th Nov 2014 12:21 pm
Most of the 1.8 billion young people are in underdeveloped countries in Africa, South America and Asia.
The main thing they will be producing is more babies.
Kenz300 on Tue, 18th Nov 2014 12:29 pm
Too many youths……. too many people……..
The worlds poorest people are having the most children……. they have not figured out the connection between their poverty and family size.
They can not provide for themselves yet they have more children they can not provide for……
Around the world we have a food crisis, a water crisis, a declining fish stocks crisis, an energy crisis, a Climate Change crisis, and unemployment crisis and an OVER POPULATION CRISIS.
Every problem is harder to solve with an endless unsustainable growing population.
Family planning services needs to be available to all that want it.
kervennic on Tue, 18th Nov 2014 12:40 pm
What we see is a rise in unemployment. And that will contaminate all economies because young people move around.
Richard Ralph Roehl on Tue, 18th Nov 2014 2:26 pm
Just what this planet needs! More economic growth. More cars. More houses. More sheeple! Phuck! Phuck! Hooray!
henriksson on Tue, 18th Nov 2014 3:45 pm
“In general women, children, and the youth show little interest in conservation so expect more waste. I may get in trouble with that statement but that is my experience.”
I really doesn’t matter if your unsupported misandrist/ageist bias holds true or not – men and old people have higher, so they consume more. They could be the biggest enthusiats of conservation on the planet and it wouldn’t matter in absolute terms.
henriksson on Tue, 18th Nov 2014 3:45 pm
*higher income
dolanbaker on Tue, 18th Nov 2014 3:49 pm
“What we see is a rise in unemployment. And that will contaminate all economies because young people move around.”
Until they are prevented from doing so, economic migration is only tolerated while the host countries need extra workers.
Davy on Tue, 18th Nov 2014 3:51 pm
Ok, henric, I will keep to my personal family experience. I am obsessive about conservation and efficiency. The women and children in my life are not interested in it. You are probably right in aggregate and macro with all the senseless activities us men with money and power engage in. Forgetting to turn the lights off is like a popcorn fart on a windy day compared to all those toys with horsepower we guys play without.. I stand corrected.
noobtube on Tue, 18th Nov 2014 4:44 pm
Boy, the American garbage and “the Waste” (I mean “the West”) are out in force today.
The most worthless collection of garbage to ever exist are Americans. Yet, Americans are always pointing their filthy, fat fingers at everyone else for the crimes the Americans commit everywhere on the globe (war on terror, war on drugs, war on crime, war on this, war on that, Americans are war-obsessed trash).
It is when the American degenerate is wiped from the face of the Earth, will this planet have a chance to recover.
Americans are THE OVER-population problem.
keith on Tue, 18th Nov 2014 4:48 pm
I don’t agree with Davy completely, but he did remind me of a question I had?
I’ve come to this site regularly for the past 7 years. I’ve as yet seen a post with a woman’s name. Are women interested in peak oil?
Northwest Resident on Tue, 18th Nov 2014 4:54 pm
keith — Very rarely is their a post on this site from a person using a female name. Which I also find to be very interesting, now that you mention it. However, I think it is likely that noobtube is a former male who has been neutered and cut badly in a botched sex change operation that left her bitter and blathering incoherent nonsense, nonstop. Or something ever worse… 🙂
Davy on Tue, 18th Nov 2014 5:20 pm
NR, perfect, The NOobessa. You know NR, NOob was kinda funny with the Waste and West thing. That took some deep thought.
Kieth, please don’t agree with me too much. The world is a village with lots of angles. I appreciate other angles and viewpoints. I am always open for correction.
I don’t want you to think I am sexist. I am not. I have high regard for women. The women in my life get special treatment. I do find them oblivious to conservation and efficiency but like I said earlier I am obsessive about it.
The issue of women and PO is interesting because you would think women would be extremely interested in the subject considering the losses they could endure in a postindustrial world. There are very few women that visit this site. It is possible they read but don’t comment. One of my best friends is a PO woman here in MO. I turned her on to this stuff back in 04 and she has been a dedicated doomer and prepper since.
farmlad on Tue, 18th Nov 2014 6:16 pm
Davey I would guess that your observation of spoiled females is quite normal in the higher income half of the US population. I would say though, that the females in my family are more frugal and dedicated then the males. I think that when times are difficult women tend to pull more than their half of the load but when times are good they are more apt to disconnect from reality; and then you’d better tread carefully.
Perk Earl on Tue, 18th Nov 2014 6:58 pm
Yeah, these unemployed, poor youth will take the bull by the horns and run roughshod over this planet, ratcheting up the world economy into higher gears of exponential growth./sarc off
Makati1 on Tue, 18th Nov 2014 7:59 pm
Anything coming out of the Western dominated UN is mostly BS. They have not done anything worthwhile in decades. More pompus asses getting a huge income and bennies from the producing class.
Davy on Tue, 18th Nov 2014 8:00 pm
Farmer, I would not call my immediate family spoiled. My kids and girlfriend just find my conservation and efficiency obsessions trivial. Should we be obsessed with minor conservation infractions like lights left on. I say yes because 100MIL lights left on add up. They don’t think that way.
I will agree my extended 1%er family is embarisinglly spoiled. It is a painful experience sometimes to be a part of it. In fact I often enter a surreal world of disconnect. Imagine flagrant waist with someone like me with an obsession with conservation and efficiency. I have given up on trying to change them but I never get used to their lifestyles.
Northwest Resident on Tue, 18th Nov 2014 8:52 pm
Davy — Don’t be so hard on your one-percenter family for their excessive waste. After all, excessive waste is what powers the global economy — it is what modern civilization is built on. Without excessive waste, the economy would just shrivel up and blow away.
BTW, NoObessa — has a catchy ring to it!
Makati1 on Tue, 18th Nov 2014 9:23 pm
Related to our youth problem:
“…By 2040, the agency said, almost 200 reactors are due to be shut down with considerable uncertainties over the decommissioning costs. An FT article quotes $100 billion for plant dismantling but the extent to which this is just the beginning is highlighted by a quote from Paul Dorfman of the Energy Institute at University College London who said, “The UK’s own decommissioning and waste disposal costs are estimated at £85 billion ($135 billion) alone.”
As the UK only has 16 reactors, according to the World Nuclear Association, the permanent disposal costs of high level nuclear waste clearly make up an even larger proportion of shut-down costs than the plant decommissioning….”
http://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Nuclear-Power/End-Of-Life-Costs-For-Nuclear-Power-A-Real-Concern.html
~$17,000,000,000,000.00 Plus Plus…
dashster on Wed, 19th Nov 2014 1:05 am
“Until they are prevented from doing so, economic migration is only tolerated while the host countries need extra workers.”
The problem is that the definition of “needs extra workers” is different between worker and the elite. The elite want more workers if they run an ad in the paper and it doesn’t get 200 resumes or applications in a week. The workers have no real reason to want more workers, but will follow what the elites tell them to want, as long as they have a job and are either sure they won’t get laid off, or are sure they can get another one if they lose the current one. The great recession brought unemployment up around or over 10%, but the vast majority of people still had jobs and weren’t worried about losing it or finding another. So economic migration into the country – both legal and illegal – continued at it’s normal pace.