Stories written by Joseph Chamie
Joseph Chamie is a consulting demographer, a former director of the United Nations Population Division and author of numerous publications on population issues, including his recent book, "Births, Deaths, Migrations and Other Important Population Matters."
Older men and women are now living longer than ever before. Across the globe, individuals who reach old age can expect to have more years of life ahead of them than in previous generations. However, these additional years of life, coupled with the disparities among and within countries, including variations between older men and women, present substantial economic, social, and political challenges for societies.
In the past, Shakespeare famously wrote in his play Henry VI that the first step for those seeking power was to “kill off the lawyers”. Today, the first step taken by those seeking power is to hide the numbers and control the message.
Many countries around the world have a fertility rate below the replacement level of 2.1 births per woman, but one country stands out with its exceptionally low fertility rate.
Until the middle of the 20th century, marriage between men and women was the societal norm among countries, and the cohabitation of couples was uncommon and stigmatized. In the subsequent decades, however, that situation changed significantly worldwide.
On the crucial matters of life and death, the United States is a costly anomaly. Simply stated, women and men in the US pay more for health but get less life.
In much of the past, few people lived alone. At the start of the 20th century, one-person households were relatively rare and are estimated to have accounted for less than 10% of all households worldwide.
As the world’s population of 8.2 billion people increases in size and becomes older due to demographic ageing, the number of people experiencing the long goodbye, or dementia, is rapidly rising.
For most voters, to make America great again, as the 47th president has repeatedly pledged, meant to make the United States markedly superior globally. However, the administration’s actions, policies and program cuts will not improve but only worsen the US’s mediocre standing among advanced countries.
The 20th century ushered in the profound rise of the elderly. During the 21st century, the elderly as a result of their rising numbers and growing proportions of country populations will be increasingly impacting government policies, programs and expenditures.
As the United States confronts the unflinching demographic piper with the stark facts of reality, the new administration and Congress are denying, disengaging and dismantling.
Country populations worldwide are experiencing the demographic ageing transformation. The relatively young populations experienced during most of the 20th century are increasingly being transformed into the older populations of the 21st century.
As the world’s population increased five-fold since the start of the 20th century, the changes in the geographic distribution of the billions of people across the planet have been ongoing and significant.
Yeah, governments are having a hissy fit over it. And their hissy fit is not over the usual concerns of governments such as defense, the economy, trade, inflation, unemployment, crime, or terrorism.
Of the approximately 280 million immigrants in the world, the country hosting the largest number is America, the land of immigration. One-fifth of the world’s international migrants reside in the US, with those migrants arriving from nearly every country in the world.
Many Americans, especially the wealthy and successful, have discovered that the US is facing the scourge of an ageing elderly population that is seriously threatening the nation’s prosperity, economic growth and international standing.
Following the long-sought cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas, the major challenge for the Israelis and the stateless Palestinians is how to achieve a lasting peace that will end the disastrous cycle of death, destruction, displacement and despair.
After the Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, Israel retaliated with a war in Gaza involving bombings, shootings and blockades but with no explicit plan for achieving peace with the Palestinians.
As a result of its policies and actions in response to the 7 October attack, the Israeli government has not only alienated its allies and acquired adversaries but also found itself isolated diplomatically. The consequences of those developments and realignments have occurred across countries, organizations and groups worldwide.
Following the 7 October 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas-led militants, Israel’s response has led to unprecedented high mortality levels in the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian death toll over the twelve month period is believed to be among the highest such civilian casualty rates in the 21st century.