July 01, 2014 | Defo News

Education drives economic growth

The new issue (Nr. 2/2014) of "Demografische Forschung Aus Erster Hand", the popular science newsletter with latest research results from demography, has been released. (The Newsletter is available in German only.)

Topics of the 2/2014 issue:

Education is a key element
A decline in high fertility rates does not necessarily trigger economic growth. 

It can be of advantage when fewer children are born to a country. At first, that is. After all, rising numbers of people of working age stimulate the economy at most times. Researchers of the Wittgenstein Centre of Demography and Global Human Capital in Vienna, however, have now found out that education is much more important to economic growth. 

No child day-care centers, no children
Women in Germany have much fewer children than females in neighboring states mainly due to the lack of child care services.

Compared to Europe, Germany’s birth rate has been relatively low for decades. But this not because of  cultural influences but rather because of shortcomings in family policy – as shown by a comparison with the German-speaking region in neighboring Belgium done by scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock.

Germans are piling on weight
In 2030, every fifth to tenth person aged above 50 will probably be obese.

The risk of obesity increases with age. So, are Germans not just getting older, but also piling on more and more weight? Scientists from the Rostock Center for the Study of Demographic Change have looked into this question. Done for the first time ever, they have studied how the numbers of elderly with mild and severe obesity may change in the future.

"Demografische Forschung Aus Erster Hand" is a joint publication of the Max Planck Institute for demographic Research (MPIDR), the Rostocker Zentrum zur Erforschung des Demografischen Wandels (RZ), the Vienna Institute of Demography (VID), the Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital and the Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB). The newsletter is released four times a year and is available electronically and as a printed version and is free of charge.

All past issues are available online on the Newsletter website. On the website you also have the possibility to subscribe to the Newsletter to get informed about the release of the new issues or to receive the printed versions by mail.