Generation Y and the Workplace Annual Report 2010 - Haworth

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World Demographics
As economies and businesses become more knowledge-intensive, knowledge and skills are at a
premium. The fact that there are not enough of them only makes their talents even more attractive.
Apparently there is a dearth of Generation Y entering the workforce in Western Europe 13 . In the UK, for
example, they are the smallest of the generations in the current total population. Increasing numbers of
them are highly educated and their talents, as in the rest of the world, are in demand.
Figure 2: World Population in 2009
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, International Data Base 14
Worldwide In 2009, if we consider the wider definition of the generation Y (15-29 years old) and rely on
current statistical database of the US Census Bureau, the wider Generation Y represents 25.47% of the
world population, the wider Generation X (30 to 44) represents 21.32% of the population. The first of the
Baby Boomers (45-64 years old) represent 18.55% of the world population and are due to retire in large
numbers, starting in 2004, taking their knowledge and experience with them. Countries such as Canada,
Australia, and the United States could lose more than a third of their government employees by 2010 15 .
Worldwide, within the age group which we research, they are more males than females, especially
amongst the young generation (below 25 years old), while the older generation (above 50 years old) has
more females than males.
Global WorkPlace Innovation
Generations Population % Of World Population
Gen Y - 15-29 years old 1,723,911,077.00 25.47
Gen x - 30-44 year old 1,442,951,791.00 21.32
Baby Boomers - 5 - 64 years old 1,233,836,150.00 18.56
Traditionalists - 65-74 years old 316,330,067.00 4.67
The world population increased from 3 billion
in 1959 to 6 billion by 1999, a doubling that
occurred over 40 years. The Census Bureau’s
latest projections imply that population
growth will continue into the 21st century,
although more slowly. The world population
is projected to grow from 6 billion in 1999 to
9 billion by 2043, an increase of 50 percent
that is expected to require 44 years. The
world population growth rate rose from
about 1.5 percent per year from 1950-51 to
a peak of over 2 percent in the early 1960s
due to reductions in mortality. Growth rates
thereafter started to decline due to rising age
at marriage as well as increasing availability
and use of effective contraceptive methods.
Note that changes in population growth have
not always been steady. A dip in the growth
rate from1959-1960, for instance, was due to
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Intellectual Property Johnson Controls, Haworth and iDEA.
the Great Leap Forward in China. During that
time, both natural disasters and decreased
agricultural output in the wake of massive
social reorganization caused China’s death rate
to rise sharply and its fertility rate to fall by
almost half.
In addition to growth rates, another way to
look at population growth is to consider annual
changes in the total population. The annual
increase in world population peaked at about
88 million in the late 1980s. The peak occurred
then, even though annual growth rates were
past their peak in the late 1960s, because the
world population was higher in the 1980s than
in the 1960s.’
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Population Division
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