• Growing cohorts of young people may, if not addressed, pose a challenge to sustainable development, as well as potentially cause political or social destabilization.
• Countries with growing youth populations may face major challenges of adequate human capital investment and high unemployment. Especially in countries where the youth cohort is growing rapidly, most of which are in Sub-Saharan Africa, it is likely to be challenging for the labour market to absorb young workers fast enough. Existing youth unemployment today will affect social and economic development in the future since young people who have a delayed entry in the labour market tend to lag behind in earnings and income growth once employed.
• Countries where the population in working-age (25-64 years) is growing faster than other age groups, such as in Sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia, could benefit from the “demographic dividend”. That is the economic growth potential stemming from the share of working-age population being larger than the share of dependants. It could e.g. lead to rapid economic growth, higher productivity and increased savings. This would, however, require increased investments in children’s and youth’s human capital, education and health, and that the labour market manages to absorb new workers.

| Related megatrends: Work; Migration; Security, Education