The growth will shoot up in next 3 years. B __________ a combination of the high birth rates after the Second World War and more recent improvements in health that are bringing down death rates at older ages. Separate UN forecasts predict that the global population will be more than nine billion by 2050.

• the change is due to
• a huge shift towards an ageing population
• as proportions of older people increase in most countries
• which recently replaced Italy as the world’s oldest major country
• the alarm about these changes
• which shows the balance between working-age people and the older
• while patterns of work and retirement will have huge implications