A recent Washington Post article, citing UN demographic data, painted certain scenarios (in 9 charts) which together place Africa at the epicentre of the world's transformation in the 22nd century. Africa's strength will be manifest across the board, and the surge (in full flight) will be contra-Malthusian and of Sub-Saharan proportions. Its population will have grown from 1.031 billion in 2010 to 4.185 billion in 2100.
In all this, some countries will stand out. For example, Nigeria alone, with a population of 914 million in 2100, will have double the population of the US, and "could theoretically deliver an African miracle akin to, say, China's." Tanzania's population will have soared from 34 million in the year 2000 to 276 million in 2100, followed fairly closely by Ethiopia and DRC.
But the most consequential narrative of all, here, is the near-sudden impact of a dependency ratio which will have declined from 80% now to 60% in 2050!
Still, this peek into the future warns of two familiar and potentially huge bumps in the road to there: bad governance and wasteful (perhaps because myopic) resource management. But neither of these is illustrated with the same kind of eye-popping analytics. Moreover, important countries are conspicuous by their absence. Read more>>
PS: Have a look (again?) at the immensity of Africa: Here
