As indicated above, the increase in the working- age population has had a direct and favorable impact on growth in per capita income, but this is a transitory phenomenon. In some East Asian economies, the working-age cohort has already started to decline and the older population is increasing rapidly, particularly in high-income economies, in large part because they have very low fertility rates. Lower-income economies will also experience
significant increases in the share of older people in the next few decades. This rapid and massive transition will have important implications for economic growth, the sustainability of publicly funded pension and healthcare systems, labor supply, saving and capital formation, spending on human resources, poverty, and intergenerational inequality.