Topic » Security and Governance
Countries that lack the means to provide for basic needs of their people face greater risk of instability and conflict. When limited access to family planning contributes to high fertility, it creates a high percentage of young people with fewer economic opportunities. While there is not a direct causal relationship between age structure and conflict, eighty percent of all outbreaks of civil conflict between 1970 and 1999 occurred in countries in which at least 60 percent of the population was under the age of 30.
PAI identifies links between demographics and security to highlight strategies for governments and global institutions to combat poverty, ensure growing nations develop sustainably, and create a more stable world. PAI believes programs that promote demographic transition — such as family planning, girls’ education, maternal and child health, HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment—must be an integral part of development assistance.
FEATURED PUBLICATIONS
The Shape of Things to Come – Why Age Structure Matters To A Safer, More Equitable World
Updated Report available: The Shape of Things to Come: The Effects of Age Structure on Development By Elizabeth Leahy with Robert Engelman, Carolyn Gibb Vogel, Sarah Haddock and Tod Preston What follows is the result of more than two years of … Continue reading
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Screening of “Fighting the Silence” at the Dutch Foreign Ministry
Introduction: Staff from Population Action International are presenting “The Shape of Things to Come: Why Age Structure Matters to a Safer, More Equitable World” at several events in Europe. Join Tyler LePard, PAI’s Media Manager, for an inside look! Our … Continue reading
Data & Maps
The Shape of Things To Come Interactive Database
The Shape of Things to Come Interactive Database brings the findings of this landmark publication to life. With just a few mouse clicks you can compare population profiles of up to three countries at a time, view world age structure … Continue reading
Report
The Shape of Things to Come – Why Age Structure Matters To A Safer, More Equitable World
Updated Report available: The Shape of Things to Come: The Effects of Age Structure on Development By Elizabeth Leahy with Robert Engelman, Carolyn Gibb Vogel, Sarah Haddock and Tod Preston What follows is the result of more than two years of … Continue reading
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Poverty Reduction Stymied by Population Growth
The world will fail to achieve the targets set in the landmark Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) unless population growth is curbed, says a new report from the United Kingdom’s All-Parliamentary Group on Population, Development and Reproductive Health. The report’s findings … Continue reading
Policy Brief
How the HIV/AIDS Pandemic Threatens Global Security
Continued high rates of AIDS-related illness and death in some of the world’s poorest countries could impose unprecedented changes in their population age structures, stunt their economic development and retard their demographic transition—the change from a population characterized by short … Continue reading
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Policy Brief
How Demographic Transition Reduces Countries’ Vulnerability to Civil Conflict
During the last three decades of the 20th century, demographic transition — a population’s shift from high to low rates of birth and death — was associated with continuous declines in the vulnerability of countries to civil conflicts (ethnic wars, … Continue reading
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Report
The Security Demographic – Population and Civil Conflict After the Cold War
by Richard Cincotta, Robert Engelman, and Daniele Anastasion Do the dynamics of human population — rates of growth, age structure, distribution and more — influence when and where warfare will next break out? The findings of this report suggest that … Continue reading
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Report
Economics and Rapid Change – The Influence of Population Growth
Richard P. Cincotta and Robert Engelman While the linkage between demographic and economic dynamics is undeniably complex, new data make clear that during the 1980s, on average, population growth dampened the growth of per capita GDP. The negative effects of … Continue reading