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Where have all the children gone? Last year, the U.S. Census Bureau released a report projecting that by the year 2020, the global population of humans age 65 and older will outnumber those 5 and under. According to the report, “An Aging World: 2015,” the two groups will “continue to grow in opposite directions. By 2050, the proportion of the population 65 and older (15.6 percent) will be more than double that of children under age 5 (7.2 percent).”

Worldwide, the percentage of populations age 65 and older ranges from a high of 26.6 percent in Japan to a low of 1 percent in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Of the 25 nations with the oldest citizens, 22 of them are in Europe. The world’s youngest countries are all in the Persian Gulf.

For many countries today, fertility rates have fallen far below the 2.1 children necessary for every couple to produce in order to keep a population stable. In Europe, the average fertility rate is 1.6 births. The U.S. is only a little higher at around 1.9 births per couple.

In Canada, the projected crossover has already happened. The nation’s latest census shows that there were 5.9 million Canadians 65 or older compared to 5.8 million children age 14 or younger. In Canada, as in much of the world, the shifting demographics are the result of higher life expectancy and a plummeting fertility rate.