Policy Briefs

Population decline in rural areas has recently gained importance on the European Union’s (EU) agenda and is currently among the priorities related to demographic change for the Vice-President for Democracy and Demography of the European Commission. A previous Population Europe policy brief provided recommendations on how rural areas can respond to these population changes while offering a good quality of life (Lines, 2020). In this current policy brief, eminent demography scholars present key insights from the discipline, aiming to contribute to the current debates on the future of rural areas in Europe. [...]

In upcoming decades, population ageing in the Baltic Sea States is inevitable due to long-term population trends such as low birth rates and increasing life expectancy, as well as migration. As a consequence, the labour force will substantially shrink and become significantly older. Population ageing, therefore, will not only exert pressure on the sustainable funding of pension and healthcare systems, but also represents a challenge to economic prosperity, social cohesion and social sustainability between generations as a whole. [...]

Key messages: Policy proposals for young Europeans should be based on a life course perspective. Challenges faced by individuals should be seen as a consequence of a series of intertwined life events that occur within particular policy, socio-economic and cultural contexts. Independence in young adulthood should be viewed as a multi-dimensional concept, which includes residential, economic and psychological independence.  [...]

Key Messages:  The impact of family dissolution on children varies considerably and lasting effects persist for only a minority. To prevent negative consequences of family dissolution on children’s development, policies should prevent economic downward mobility and provide support to children and parents to adapt to new family dynamics and forms. Life chances of children depend more strongly on the socio-economic background of their parents than on the family form they are living in. [...]

Key Messages: Demographic change is a shaper of both security risks and security capacities. Recruitment requirements will remain at a high level due to the complexity of international military missions and new technology, while population ageing will make it increasingly difficult to recruit enough qualified personnel. Policies focusing on the improvement of employment conditions and the expansion of the recruitable population seem to be most promising. [...]

Key Messages: Increasing divorce and separation rates have major implications for current and future levels of housing inequality, patterns of social stratification and opportunities for spatial mobility. Prolonged residential instability after separation could lead to instability for individuals in other life domains (e.g. psychological wellbeing, children’s schooling, access to friendship networks, post-separation socio-economic status). [...]

Wie können Städte und Gemeinden auf diese Bevölkerungstrends reagieren und wie kann die Lebensqualität auch in schrumpfenden Regionen erhalten werden? Wie unterscheiden sich diesbezüglich die Ansprüche von jüngeren Menschen, jungen Familien und der älteren Generation? Dies war Gegenstand eines vom Bundesministerium für Familie, Senioren, Frauen und Jugend geförderten Projekts, bei dem Expert/innen aus Wissenschaft, Politik, Kommunalverwaltung und Zivilgesellschaft in Deutschland bei einer Tagung am 20. Januar 2020 in Berlin diskutierten. [...]

How can cities and municipalities respond to these changes and what steps can be taken to maintain the quality of life in regions with a shrinking population? What are the differences in the needs and demands of young generations, young families and older generations? These questions were the subject of a meeting held in Berlin on 20 January 2020 on behalf of a project funded by the German Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, in which experts from research, policy, local government and civil society in Germany discussed possible solutions. [...]

In light of the COVID-19 crisis, one of the most urgent policy issues is to gain a better understanding of the extent and ways in which demographics have determined different patterns of mortality in European countries due to the virus, and whether and how the pandemic and its economic consequences will affect population dynamics in the future. European demographers have been intensively working on these questions since the pandemic began. This policy brief offers an overview of the most important crisis outcomes identified by the demographic community in Europe to date, and points towards the pivotal trends that need to be tackled in the coming months. [...]

Key Messages Even a new baby-boom and high migration cannot prevent Europe from population ageing over the next decades. Population ageing and shrinking labour force will affect the productivity of the economy if no further reforms are undertaken. These reforms should include a redistribution of work over the life-course which will also require a new system of social protection.   References: [...]