If the population of a country or region declines, what happens to its economy?
There are a few real examples of your question. Most notably may be Japan as well as many developed Western countries. The U.S. however, has experienced population growth due primarily to immigration rather than births. In the case of Japan, population growth by births is rather stagnant, and there seems to be a high barrier for immigration. The fear is that the elderly population will overtake the working (which may already be the case), and Japan’s version of social security will inevitably fail. I believe the Japanese government is promoting the birth rate through incentives and the media. There are a few factors that actually allow the economy of a country to grow while the population decreases. People who did not previously contribute to the economy may do so, eg. retirees, students, women. For example, during World War II, females entered into the workforce in the U.S. (which was unprecedented at the time), while the men were sent overseas to fight. The simple fact is that genera
