Flint

People generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for

We can perhaps describe in general terms what we can expect of them as consumers, given their likely educational attainment or current patterns of social media activity. We can also calculate with reasonable accuracy how many people will live to be eighty or ninety years old. And we may even be in a position to predict with some acceptable degree of confidence that a certain percentage of seniors will need a care provider—whether it’s another human or a robot. When it comes to the latter, imagine that these robots speak different languages with a variety of accents, aren’t opinionated, don’t take days off, and don’t abuse their patients financially or otherwise

South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa will be vying for the title of the world’s most populous region.

the population of cities is growing at a rate of 1.5 million per week. While cities occupy just 1 percent of the world’s land area, they are home to 55 percent of the population and account for 80 percent of energy consumption (and carbon emissions). That’s why cities are on the front lines of efforts to combat climate change

Within a decade, the largest generation will be the population above age sixty, which today owns 80 percent of the wealth in the United States and is giving rise to the “gray market”—the largest consumer bloc of all. Companies large and small should redirect some of their attention to senior citizens if they wish to remain relevant as time goes on

Airbnb wouldn’t be so successful if it weren’t for a number of converging trends: declining fertility, longer life expectancy, doubts about the future viability of public pensions, expanded use of smartphones and apps, and a growing interest in sharing rather than owning. I

More women now graduate from high school, and more of them go on to get a college education. Back in the fifties about 7 percent of women between the ages of twenty-five and twenty-nine had a college degree, half the rate of men. Nowadays, the proportion of women with a college degree is nearly 40 percent, while for men the figure is only 32 percent

Most of China’s fertility decline cannot be attributed to the one-child policy.” The slowdown was driven by people’s decisions under changing circumstances, not by government bureaucrats. “The one-child campaign was based on politics and pseudo-science, rather than on necessity, much less on good demography,” the experts concluded

Economic development is the best contraceptive

By 2030 China will have 90 million fewer people between the ages of fifteen and thirty-five and 150 million more people above the age of sixty.