One of the most serious, not so popular problems of today is the aging population. Within the European Union, problematic indicators on birth rate are recorded, which raises the future of the workforce not only in our country.
Although the European Union is expanding to include new Member States and the wealth of its citizens is increasing, it must struggle with this problem. More and less infants are endangered by the labor market, health care system and pension system. Demographic reports warn that the European population is slowly dying out. At the same time, surveys show that Europeans would welcome more descendants. But only if they are economically enough.
Will we be witnessing the demographic crisis?
It is a great assumption that in the coming decades we will witness an unprecedented demographic crisis. Due to low birth rates, young people leaving abroad, increasing life expectancy and alienation, we can become one of the most aging societies in the European Union. Of course, the aging population is a trend that affects all developed nations of the world, so it is not just our problem. In terms of demographic forecasting, Western and Northern Europe is significantly better than Southern and Eastern European countries. The solution to the demographic crisis should therefore include economic, employment and family measures.
While countries such as Norway, Denmark and Ireland will grow in population, Finland will increase the population with a stable population. After 2030, Slovakia is expecting a gradual extinction and simultaneous aging of the population as a country of Western and Northern Europe. Today we are among the youngest danger of nations of age, we are either older than others. By 2060, we were to be one of our aging nations in Europe. This means that health care and the pension system will be much more difficult. Thus, aging will not occur but very dynamically. You will become the most competent one of the fastest star populations in Europe.
The effect of low birth rates will gradually increase the aging population
Demographic trends in European countries are too different to allow one prediction of productivity growth across Europe. There is no country that is only on the positive side, but some estimates of the trend are visible. Demographic “winners” are the northern countries, but also Germany, where the share of 30-49 year-olds will increase in the next decade. A similar trend is expected in Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The increase in labor productivity in Central and Eastern Europe may also end due to a decrease in the number of employees aged 30-49 due to their ongoing migration to the West. This will be felt mainly by the Czech Republic and Hungary. Slovakia should be less affected, but in the next decade there will also be a fall in workers.
There may be several reasons for unfavorable predictions. The fertility rate in Slovakia is lower than in Western and Northern European countries. Women are more concerned with their careers, fewer marriages and divorce rates. To this must be added new patterns of cohabitation, to which we advise single parents or homosexual unions. Many young people go to richer countries for better education and career opportunities. The paradox remains that we are more locked up to immigrants from other countries and we are not particularly attractive to them. So we are not the only state struggling, respectively. will struggle with the loss of people.
“Natural decline is much more common in Europe than in the US because of the older population, lower birth rates and fewer fertile women. Natural decline is a major political concern because it drains demographic resilience from the region, reducing its economic viability and competitiveness. ”
– Demographist Dudley Poston with colleagues from Texas A&M University
Migration as a solution to the problem
If the population ages, there will be fewer work activities and more retired people. There may also be a situation where the population will grow, but the economic level will not create conditions for a satisfactory life. However, foreign workers could help the economy to grow. They are flexible and go to those sectors of the profession where there is the greatest labor shortage.
“The countries of the European Union that support family policy and reconciliation of work and family life have higher birth rates. Immigration provides a significant contribution to the recovery and empowerment of the active population at different levels of expertise. “
– Sociologist François Héran
In our view, opening borders to third countries is one way of avoiding the demographic crisis. Unless the birth rate, migration or mortality increase substantially, the pressure on the pension system will increase rapidly. Migration can be a key condition for preventing population aging and labor loss. This would not risk overloading pension systems in almost all EU countries. We will only have a positive impact when society is able to manage and consolidate migration.
