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SHAPING THE FUTURE HOW CHANGING DEMOGRAPHICS CAN POWER HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

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encouraged labour-intensive industries from<br />

East Asian countries, including Japan and the<br />

Republic of Korea, to relocate to South-east<br />

Asian countries, where the labour pool is still<br />

young and costs remain low.<br />

Peaks in the number of potential workers<br />

diverge widely. East Asia reached its peak at<br />

1.2 billion in 2015, while South-east Asia will<br />

not do so until 2055, with half a billion people<br />

in the working-age group. South Asia will<br />

have more working-age people than any other<br />

subregion, with the largest surge by 2055 to a<br />

projected 1.6 billion, dominated by India. More<br />

than 280 million more people will be eligible to<br />

enter the job market in India by 2050, a third<br />

more than the current number.<br />

REACHING <strong>THE</strong> PEAK IN<br />

<strong>THE</strong> WORKING-AGE POPULATION<br />

The peak in the working-age population may<br />

be gauged as either the absolute number of<br />

working-age people or as their share in the<br />

population. For Asia-Pacific, the peak comes<br />

FIGURE 2.2:<br />

Within Asia-Pacific, the size and share of the workforce varies over time and by subregion<br />

East Asia is<br />

most advanced in<br />

its demographic<br />

transition<br />

Source: Based on UN DESA 2015a.<br />

49

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