Demographics to Demand: Takeaways from call on drivers, myths and impacts of aging & declining populations

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Demographics to Demand: Takeaways from call on drivers, myths and impacts of aging & declining populations

Equity Research

29 July 2026 | 12:16AM BST

GS SUSTAIN INSIGHTS

Demographics to Demand: Takeaways from call on drivers, myths and

impacts of aging & declining populations

On July 21 we hosted a webcast with Dr. Dean Spears — Economic Demographer, Evan Tylenda, CFA

+44(20)7774-1153 |

Development Economist, Associate Professor of Economics at the University of evan.tylenda@gs.com

Goldman Sachs International

Texas at Austin, and author of ‘After the Spike: Population, Progress and the

Brian Singer, CFACase for People’. We discussed the history of populations rise and its forward +1(212)902-8259 | brian.singer@gs.com

trajectory, and explored the economic, environmental, and social implications Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC

Grace Chenof aging and declining populations – covering what our presenter sees as +44(20)7774-5119 |

misperceptions around the benefits and downsides of population decline. We grace.j.chen@gs.comGoldman Sachs International

summarize key takeaways below: Brendan Corbett

+1(415)249-7440 |

1. As fast as populations rose they may fall — Humanity currently past peak brendan.corbett@gs.comGoldman Sachs & Co. LLC

births and approaching peak populations: Our presenter highlighted that for Xavier Zhang

thousands of years human numbers grew slowly with only ~300 million people at the +852-2978-6681 | xavier.zhang@gs.com Goldman Sachs (Asia) L.L.C.

start of the common era, but improvements in survival — better nutrition, sanitation,

and reduction in child mortality drove exponential growth, reaching 1 billion by the

early 1800s, 2 billion by 1900s and quadrupling over the last century. Critically, birth