Over the next three or four decades, the steady decline in birth rates, starting in the 1950s in many advanced economies, notably in Europe, to below the rate at which the population is self-sustaining, will bring about a sharp reduction in the growth of the labour force in many countries. There will be an absolute decline in the labour force in several countries—in the key economies of Japan, China and most of North Asia as well as several in continental Europe, such as Germany, Italy, Spain and Poland.
