Demographics, Statistics etc. 01 (Apr 09 - Aug 22)

[winston]

China 2010 census shows 1.3 billion population

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's population grew to 1.34 billion by 2010, according to census figures released on Thursday, up 5.9 percent from the 1.27 billion counted in the last census in 2000, and lower than the 1.4 billion population some demographers had projected for the latest tally.

The census results showed that China, the world's second-biggest economy after the United States, is rapidly urbanizing and becoming older. These trends augur big changes in the labor market in coming years, as the number of potential workers, especially from the countryside, shrinks.

The figures also showed that China's population is growing more slowly than in the past. Between 1990 and 2000, the total population increased by 11.7 percent.

By 2010, half of China's population, 49.7 percent, lived in urban areas.

In 2000, 36.1 percent of Chinese lived in cities and towns, although that census used a different counting method.

China is also aging, the latest census showed.

The proportion of mainland Chinese people aged 14 or younger was 16.60 percent, down by 6.29 percentage points from the number in the 2000 census. The number aged 60 or older grew to 13.26 percent, up 2.93 percentage points.

"The change in the age composition of population is a reflection of great improvement in the standard of living and medical and health undertakings along with fast economic and social development, the continued low level of fertility, and the accelerated process of population aging."

The Chinese government's strict controls on family size, including a one-child policy for most urban families, have brought down annual population growth to below 1 percent and the rate is projected to turn negative in coming decades.

China's choke on family size to usually one child in cities and two in the countryside now threatens its economic future, many demographers have said, with fewer people left to pay and care for an increasingly graying population.

Source: Reuters US Online Report World News

[winston]

TOL:-

About 20 years ago, I read that the markets will collapse because the baby-boomers would be retiring and would be taking their money out of the markets.

Whenever I talk to any retirees nowadays, I noticed that they are not really invested in the markets.

And how widespread is this problem ?

Isnt the low interest rates supposed to "encourage" them to take some risk and to invest in the markets, at least in the dividends stocks or those so-called Blue Chips ?

[kennynah]

1 million PRCs in sgp out of a population of ~5 million. That's demographics for u!!

[winston]

Nearly 40 percent of Europeans suffer mental illness

LONDON (Reuters) - Europeans are plagued by mental and neurological illnesses, with almost 165 million people or 38 percent of the population suffering each year from a brain disorder such as depression, anxiety, insomnia or dementia, according to a large new study.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/ ... health1100

[kennynah]

no wonder i see so many of these walking abt here

[winston]

Population boom heralds big global economic shifts by Alan Wheatley

LONDON (Reuters) - Few economists have been as spectacularly wrong as Thomas Malthus, who predicted in 1798, that unchecked population growth would doom the Earth to starvation.

As the number of people on the planet reaches 7 billion, his modern-day peers are cautiously confident that the English clergyman will remain synonymous with unwarranted doom and gloom.

With the global population headed for the 9 billion mark by 2050, economists are pinning their faith on continued technological innovation and the invisible hand of market prices to lead to a more efficient, sustainable use of finite natural resources instead of a deadly fight to the end for the last barrel of oil and drop of water.

Part of the answer to that rhetorical question presupposes uninterrupted advances in technology and productivity of the sort that Malthus, writing before the Industrial Revolution, was unable to foresee.

Still, the rapid economic re-emergence of China and India, both with populations of well over 1 billion, is changing the equation.

"We're going to go through a massive adjustment in the next 15 to 20 years. We're just beginning to see it," he said.

The fact that water is largely free for most farmers, who use 70-80 percent of the world's water, leads to enormous waste, Buiter added.

China would use four-fifths of the world's paper and 70 percent of the world's current grain output. Were China to have three cars for every four people, as the United States does, China would be consuming nearly all today's oil production.

"The world population is outrunning its basic support systems. That's why the world's forests are shrinking, its fisheries are collapsing, its grasslands are turning into deserts from overgrazing, why soil is eroding and why water tables are falling now in 18 countries that contain half the world's people," Brown said.

Source: Reuters US Online Report Top News

http://www.newsmeat.com/news/meat.php?a ... &buid=3281

[winston]

--------------------------------------------------
A Crowded World's Population Hits 7 Billion
--------------------------------------------------

LUCKNOW, Oct 31 (AlertNet) - Wrapped in a white blanket, Nargis Yadav lies in the arms of her mother in a small rural clinic in north India -- one of half a million babies born around the world Monday that will push the global population to the milestone of seven billion.

Nargis was born in the populous state of Uttar Pradesh, one of the poorest regions in India, a country that could soon overtake China as the world's most populated nation.

"Getting proper nutritional food, clean drinking water and even basics such as medical care such as immunisations to help her survive the first few years will be challenging."

With the world's population more than doubling over the last half century, basics like food and water are under more strain than ever, say experts, and providing for an additional 2-3 billion people in the next 50 years is a serious worry.

Water usage is set to increase by 50 percent between 2007 and 2025 in developing nations, while food security remains a challenge with 925 million people going hungry.

To feed the two billion more mouths predicted by 2050, food production will have to increase by 70 percent, the U.N.'s Food and Agricultural Organization says.

Growing numbers of people on earth is also resulting in rapid urbanization, placing serious strains on towns and cities as migrants move from poor rural areas to richer urban centers.

Demographers however point out that in richer nations, fertility rates have nosedived, resulting in declining numbers of people and an imbalance between the working population and retirees who need expensive social safety nets.

AlertNet is a global humanitarian news service run by Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Visit www.trust.org/alertnet

Source: Reuters US Online Report Top News

http://www.newsmeat.com/news/meat.php?a ... &buid=3281

[kennynah]

notice the trend that it is usually the lesser wealthy who give aplenty??

maybe no money for outdoor entertainment..so... what else to do at night

[winston]

And when the "experts" cant see what's happening in the short term, they write long articles about the long term, as if they are able to see decades ahead .....

=========================

This Birthday Is Nothing to Celebrate
By Martin Hutchinson, Global Investing Strategist, Money Morning

The world's 7 billionth person is likely to be born today (Monday).

However, this birthday isn't something to celebrate.

Since the global population passed 6 billion only in late 1999, we've added more than 80 million people each year on average. And the environmental footprint of those people is expanding rapidly as emerging market populations modernize.

The planet may be able to accommodate these extra people and their consumption - but then again, it may not.

And if it can't, the drain on our planet's resources could harm us all.

http://moneymorning.com/2011/10/31/this ... celebrate/

[winston]

TOL:-

The baby-boomers are retiring or being forced to retire.

Therefore, their money may be leaving the markets if they have not already left.

If their money have left the markets, do you see them coming back ?

And if they do come back, where do you think they would be putting their money ? ETFs ? Blue Chips ? Dividend Stocks ?