The World in 2030

The World in 2030 21
On the subject of working longer, most European
countries will have raised the official retirement age 22 by at
least a year or two by 2030 and improved fitness brought
about by preventive medicine and improved health care
will render the workforce capable of working (happily, even
eagerly) for longer. Indeed life expectancy will be so greatly
increased 23 by 2030 that retirement at 60 or 65 will seem
pointless. It may be the point at which people merely change
career.
On immigration, the latest figures from the UN’s
population division 24 predict a global upheaval without
parallel in human history over the next four decades. At least
2.2 million migrants from poor nations will arrive in the rich
world every year from now until 2050, the United Nations
said in March 2007. 25 This means that a total of 55 million
new immigrants will have settled in developed nations over
the next twenty-five years.
In Europe, the UN predicted that Britain, France and
Spain would receive the most new immigrants and the
Swiss population is expected to reach the eight million 26
mark by 2030, an increase of 9 per cent, mainly as a result
of immigration. On the other hand the UN predicts that
Germany, Italy, Poland and Russia will see their populations
drop because of low birth rates, lower immigration by
foreign nationals and increasing emigration by their own
citizens. Bulgaria’s population will fall by 35 per cent by
2050. Ukraine’s will plummet by 33 per cent, Russia’s by
one quarter and Poland’s by one fifth. There will be 10 per
cent fewer Germans and 7 per cent fewer Italians by the
middle of the century.