A Laboratory of the Future Human Experience
Populations in the north have evolved to cope with dull, cloudy skies and short periods of daylight.
Good news for people who are from the north: you are likely to have a bigger brain than your southern counterparts. Unfortunately, that doesn’t necessarily mean you are more intelligent than people from the south – just that you have evolved to cope with the longer winters and greyer skies in northern climates.
Many times it’s simple mistakes that send people to the slammer
A greater percentage of the population in the U.S. is locked up in prison than any other country in the world.
Continue reading… “11 stunning facts about the American prison system”
Atlanta Regional Commission project constructed the new ramp to accomodate the aging population in Atlanta.
People are getting old, fast, and they’re doing it in cities designed for the young. Cities in American are grappling with that fact as work on getting the communities ready for an older population has gotten a late start considering demographers have warned for a long time that the population is about to get older.
Continue reading… “American cities built for the young strained by aging boomers”
The divide between states gaining and losing their younger populations.
When the Beatles song “When I’m Sixty-Four” was released in 1967, many baby boomers adhered to the mantra, “Don’t trust anyone over 30.” Now the boomers are fully ensconced in advanced middle age, and the oldest of them are beginning to cross into full-fl edged senior-hood, as the first boomer turned age 65 last January. Some 80 million strong and more than one quarter of the U.S. population, baby boomers (born between 1946 and 1965) are a still a force to be reckoned with, even as they have all crossed the age-45 marker. Along with their elders, the large and growing older American population presents significant future challenges for federal government programs such as Social Security and Medicare. State and local social services and infrastructure needs will also change in communities across the nation as the population ages.
Continue reading… “2010 census trends: Uneven aging and ‘younging’ in the U.S.”
People living with incurable dementia will reach reach 115 million by 2050 worldwide.
Experts believe as people begin to live to 100 Alzheimer’s disease could cause a global cash crunch in coming generations and must be considered a serious fiscal danger.
Continue reading… “Alzheimer’s disease could cause a global cash crunch say experts”
Minorities outnumber whites among babies under age 2.
Minorities make up a majority of babies in the U.S., for the first time ever. The ‘cultural generation gap’ is part of a sweeping race change and a growing age divide between mostly white, older Americans and predominantly minority youths that could reshape government policies.
Continue reading… “Minorities make up the majority of U.S. babies”
British welfare benefits allow London’s poor to live in areas such as affluent St. John’s Wood.
St. John’s Wood is the place the London A-listers choose to live. It is a neighborhood of the wealthy with its leafy avenues lined with the mansions of Paul McCartney, Ewan McGregor and Kate Moss. And yet, they share the most unlikely neighbors — the Kastrati family.
China’s working-age population has plateaued in size and will begin getting smaller.
The large labor force in China has been central to its rise as an economic power. It has allowed companies to tap a seemingly endless pool of workers willing to move from their home towns, often live at the factory site and accept comparatively low wages.
Continue reading… “China’s Workforce Will Start Shrinking in the Next Five Years”
20 to 25 thousand people die each year in the United States because of admission on a weekend.
Ten percent of people admitted to the hospital on the weekend are more likely to die than those who checked in during the week, according to a new analysis of nearly 30 million people.
Continue reading… “Patients Admitted to the Hospital on the Weekend Are 10% More Likely to Die”
England and Wales experienced a 2.45 million increase in population between 2001 and 2009.
Britain’s 2.5 million increase in population over the last ten years has been driven entirely by non-‘white British’ people migrating to the country and higher birth rates among ethnic minority groups, official figures have indicated. Figures published by the Office for National Statistics have shown that between 2001 and 2009 the population of England and Wales increased by 2.45 million to 54.8 million.
Futurist Thomas Frey: Consider the following scenario. Over the next few years, several major cities in the U.S. will begin to impose a ban on all new residential and commercial construction. With populations declining in numerous metro areas, they will worry openly about becoming the next Detroit with abandoned neighborhoods signaling a rapid decline in property values.
Continue reading… “Turmoil Ahead for Housing”
There are about 7 billion human beings on the planet.
Earth is in the middle of a population crisis. While countless species have seen their numbers plummet in recent decades, with more than a few going extinct entirely, humans have seen theirs grow and grow — and the two trends are hardly unrelated. But incredibly, when considering the indelible impact we’ve had on the planet and the creatures we share it with in our brief time here, everyone alive today accounts for a whopping 12 percent of all the humans that have lived, ever.
