2 trends that will shock you about how quickly our world is changing

The world is changing at a pace that we have never seen before. I recently found out about two trends that I thought were shocking.

Firstly, rapidly rising inequality. The world’s 8 richest people now own as much wealth as the poorest half of the world’s population. Did you know that we are living in a world where this is the case? I certainly didn't. If this gets worse, what impact could this have on social mobility for the next generation?

Secondly, the global population is growing fast - really fast. This is primarily in developing regions, for example, Africa will add 850 million new workers to its workforce by 2050. Yet in many advanced countries, demographics are shifting at pace - and ageing populations are already having significant economic and social impacts. The average age in Japan in 2050 will be 53 – in Nigeria it will be 23. Imagine how different society will be in these two countries.

We recently presented in European Parliament on key policy issues and it was apparent that these two trends could have significant impacts on governments and businesses all around the world. In the blog link below, we expand on our new ‘Empowering a new generation’ report and discuss why maximising the economic potential of today’s youth has never been more important to confronting these two key social challenges.

bit.ly/2jVotq1