What should be the goal of population policies? Focus on ‘Balanced Human Capital Development’
Journal: Vienna Yearbook of Population Research
Volume: 2008, pages 17-24
Publisher: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften
DOI: 10.1553/populationyearbook2008s17
Wolfgang Lutz (1)
(1) World Population Program, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Schlossplatz 1, 2361 Laxenburg, Austria and Vienna Institute of Demography, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria. Email: lutz@oeaw.ac.at
Abstract
Many governments in Europe report in international enquiries that they are dissatisfied with the current demographic trends in their countries. The further one goes to the east of the continent, the stronger the publicly expressed concern. While the prime minister of Bulgaria calls his country’s ‘demographic crisis’ the number one policy priority, the president of Belarus even speaks of a national ‘demographic security crisis’, implying that this may require equally drastic action as a security crisis at the military level. Less dramatic in tone but equally urgent in its message, the President of the European Commission repeatedly called Europe’s demographic trends one of the three main challenges facing Europe, the other two being globalisation and technological change.