youth bulge
The relatively large increase in the numbers and proportion of a country’s population of youthful age, conventionally 16–25 or 16–30. When infant mortality rates fall but fertility rates do not, at least in the short term, there will be a surge in the number of births relative to preceding years. As this cohort ages it enters the age at which waged employment is the norm. If economic conditions are favourable, as they were in much of East Asia, the result is a ‘demographic dividend’, an expansion of labour that contributes to economic growth. But under less favourable conditions, a ‘demographic bomb’ can result in young people being unable to find employment. It has been argued that this is one factor behind youth political unrest, notably in North Africa and the Middle East in ... ...
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