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But given the low birth rate over the past 30 years, the supply of young workers is not, in fact, endless.
ECONOMIST: Getting old before getting rich
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No less than 70% of the country's social-security budget goes to the elderly and only 4% is aimed at child care, reinforcing the low birth rate.
ECONOMIST: Social change in Japan
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Since the 1970s the number of men and women marrying in their 20s and early 30s has fallen sharply, which is one of the main reasons the birth rate has fallen so low.
ECONOMIST: Japan's samurai culture
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It has been suggested that the lack of mortgages in Italy has contributed to that country's low birth rate and the high average age at which Italians marry for the first time.
ECONOMIST: Mortgage markets
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But it is rising per student, as a low birth rate reduces the number of matriculations.
ECONOMIST: Italian education
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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.
ECONOMIST: What happens to pay if prices are static, or falling?
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Although the overall birth rate in the east is low, highly educated women do not have fewer babies, as in the west.
ECONOMIST: But eastern and western Germany may never quite meet
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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.
ECONOMIST: Could still do better | The
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GDP, a figure certain to rise as Italy's awkward demographics of low birth rate and increasing longevity push the scheme even further out of financial balance.
ECONOMIST: Italian pensions
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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.
ECONOMIST: Australia
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Mr Medvedev oversaw major social initiatives in the areas of agriculture, health, education and efforts to boost Russia's low birth rate.
BBC: Profile: Dmitry Medvedev