Many of the people that will contribute to it have already been born, so short of some catastrophe that kills off large numbers of people, or some Viagra-fuelled leap in birth rates, population numbers and age composition can be predicted with fair accuracy for decades ahead.
It said immigration was needed to help offset a slowing birth rate and ageing population, and it needed to find a balance between the number of Singaporeans and foreigners in order to sustain its rate of economic growth.
But the Christian population is falling in statistical terms partly because it has a much lower birth-rate than the Muslim population around it.
Like France and Italy, Germany suffers from a killer combination of an ageing population, low birth rates and generous pension provision.
Mr Randall said his annual report, which is due out at the end of October, will highlight key demographic factors, including a falling birth rate and an ageing population.
Singapore's birth rate according to its National Population and Talent Division currently stands at 1.2 per woman.
Immigrants from the former Soviet Union, only moderately religious, make up half the population, but their birth rates are low.
Mitarai describes the crisis in plain language: seemingly unstoppable decline in birth rates, a turn to population decline, doubts about the future of the social security system, a shrinking domestic market.
Without a population that produces a higher birth rate than that at which developing nations historically have stabilized, the reduced working youth employee base cannot support the ever increasing aging population.
In fact, before the end of the 21st century, global population will be declining because birth rates will be less than the so-called replacement level, which is currently about 2.1 children per woman.
"We're also the oldest city in Italy demographically, with an aging population and one of the lowest birth rates in the country, " Mr. Fantinel says.
It suggests a patchwork pattern of shortages, as local population shifts and changes in the birth rate have pushed up demand in some areas beyond the capacity of schools.
Meanwhile, the working population will have been thinned by the low birth rates of the past 15 years.
Italy has the oldest population in Europe and one of the lowest birth-rates.
When they go through the birth canal, they get exposed to the entire bacteria population of their mother's vaginal and GI microbiomes.
Many critics say this is too low for a country of 19m, where the birth rate has fallen below that needed to replace the existing population.
In Japan, according to Ken Okamura, a strategist with Dresdner Kleinwort Benson, the birth rate has been so low that the working-age population will actually start to decline next year.
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As it happens, progress in improving health for the total population as measured by expected length of life at birth proceeded at not far from the same rate before World War II and after World War II.
Three years ago, the Swiss Statistical Office calculated that, with declining birth rates, stabilising the level of immigration would cut the working population by almost one-third by 2050.
Good health and a relatively low birth rate have made Sri Lanka the country with the third-oldest population in Asia after Japan and Singapore.
In Zhejiang, the first Chinese province to provide support for the rural elderly, the sex imbalance at birth has almost disappeared, according to Xie Zhenming, editor of China Population Today.
There is concern over Italy's birth rate - the lowest in Europe - and the economic implications of an ageing population.
At issue is whether a heart-plug procedure to repair a birth defect that is common in about a quarter of the U.S. population can prevent strokes in young people.
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The birth rate has been rising and it is predicted that England's primary school population will grow by 18% in the next eight years, meaning many new places are needed.
Thanks to high birth rates and immigration, particularly of spouses and relatives, the ethnic Pakistani and Bangladeshi population of Bradford swelled from about 36, 000 to 73, 000 between 1981 and 2001.
Although Germany's population is currently above 82 million, the UN suggests a combination of falling birth and rising mortality rates could see this drop to about 70 million by 2050.
Registrar General for Scotland Duncan Macniven said the Mid-2007 Population Estimates for Scotland showed that that the number of mothers from Eastern Europe giving birth in Scotland was one of the reasons for the rise in the birth rate.
They needed to be reminded on the day where the world celebrates the birth of a child whom Rome and Herod try to assign to the role of 'surplus population, ' that the frightened men who rule the world in the name of scarcity should not be followed, but saved.
The shortage of places in primary schools reflects a growth in the birth rate - with some areas facing an increase of 25% or above in the primary school population.
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