The Demographics Podcast with Fexingo: Aging Populations, Birth Rates, and Economic Impact

Lucas and Luna explore how declining birth rates and aging populations are fundamentally altering the insurance industry. They focus on life insurance, where premiums are rising for younger cohorts as the risk pool shrinks, and on long-term care insurance, which is becoming increasingly unaffordable. The hosts cite data from the Swiss Re Institute showing that global life insurance premiums could...

Episode 31 of The Demographics Podcast explores how declining birth rates and aging populations are transforming the global travel industry. Lucas and Luna examine a specific angle: the rise of 'grand-travel'—multi-generational trips centered around grandparents funding experiences for their adult children and grandchildren. They cite data from a 2025 AARP survey showing that Americans aged 55+ no...

Episode 30 of The Demographics Podcast explores how decades of declining birth rates are quietly reshaping the funeral industry. Lucas and Luna examine the math: fewer births today means fewer deaths decades from now — and that's a looming revenue problem for funeral homes. They dig into the rise of cremation over traditional burial, the shift toward cheaper direct cremation services, and the surp...

As birth rates fall across developed economies, pet ownership is surging — and the economic consequences are bigger than you think. This episode examines how declining human fertility is reshaping consumer spending, housing demand, and even public policy through the lens of the pet industry. Lucas and Luna explore the rise of 'pet parenting,' the explosion of premium pet products and services, and...

Conventional wisdom says innovation is a young person's game. But the data tells a different story. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore a surprising trend: workers over 55 are now filing patents at a higher rate than millennials. They dig into a 2025 study from the National Bureau of Economic Research showing that older inventors' patents are more cited, more valuable, and more likely to resul...

Episode 27 of The Demographics Podcast examines a counterintuitive trend: people over 55 are now the fastest-growing group of new entrepreneurs in the United States. Lucas and Luna dig into the data from the Kauffman Foundation, which shows that 27% of new entrepreneurs in 2025 were aged 55 to 64, up from 15% two decades ago. They discuss why older founders succeed more often than younger ones—bet...

Dementia isn't just a health issue — it's a fast-growing economic burden that few countries have properly priced. In this episode, Lucas and Luna examine the 'cost of care gap': how unpaid family labor masks the true expense of cognitive decline, why national budgets underestimate future dementia spending by billions, and what Japan's compulsory long-term care insurance model reveals about the cho...

Episode 25 of The Demographics Podcast examines the structural link between falling fertility rates and persistent inflation. Lucas and Luna explain how a shrinking proportion of young people reduces the labor supply, pushes up wages, and forces central banks to keep interest rates higher for longer. They focus on a 2025 working paper from the Bank for International Settlements showing that countr...

Episode 24 of The Demographics Podcast looks at an unexpected corner of the economy hit by declining birth rates: the funeral industry. With fewer people dying in countries like Japan and Germany, funeral homes face shrinking demand, price competition, and a wave of consolidations. Lucas and Luna explore how Japan's 'death industry' is adapting—from cremation-only packages to funeral subscription...

In this episode of The Demographics Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore the economic ripple effects of gray divorce — divorces among couples aged 50 and older, which have doubled since 1990. They focus on a specific case: the financial fallout for women, who often see a 45 percent drop in household income post-divorce versus 21 percent for men, according to a 2024 AARP study. The hosts discuss how gra...

Episode 22 examines the rise of 'silver dividends'—how aging populations are forcing companies to rethink dividend policies. Lucas and Luna analyze Toyota's recent shift to a higher payout ratio to attract retiring baby boomers, and how Japan's demographic trends are reshaping corporate governance. The hosts discuss why firms in aging economies are prioritizing shareholder returns over reinvestmen...

Episode 21 of The Demographics Podcast explores a less obvious consequence of falling birth rates: the quiet transformation of the global insurance industry. Lucas and Luna examine how insurers from Japan to Italy are rewriting their models as the pool of young premium-payers shrinks and the risk pool of older policyholders grows. The conversation centers on Japan's life insurance market, where th...

In Episode 20 of The Demographics Podcast, Lucas and Luna examine how falling birth rates directly undermine the math of pay-as-you-go public pension systems. Using the US Social Security trust fund depletion date (projected 2035) as the anchor, they trace the arithmetic: fewer workers per retiree means either higher taxes, lower benefits, or later retirement ages. They compare the US approach (mo...

Episode 19 of The Demographics Podcast explores the overlooked link between shrinking birth rates and military readiness. Lucas and Luna examine how Japan, South Korea, and Germany are grappling with smaller pools of military-age recruits, leading to policy shifts like extending service terms, opening combat roles to women, and investing in defense automation. A 2025 RAND study showed a 30% drop i...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the powerful link between childcare costs and fertility rates across developed economies. Drawing on OECD data and the specific case of Germany's 2025 childcare subsidy reform, they examine how the price of daycare influences family size decisions. The conversation contrasts Germany's 7.6 billion euro investment with the US, where daycare costs can exceed 20...

In this episode of The Demographics Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore a surprising twist in the economics of housing: as birth rates fall and populations age, the demand for housing doesn't simply shrink — it transforms. Drawing on data from Japan and the United States, they explain why smaller households are driving up per-capita square footage even as total population declines, and why this trend...

In this episode of The Demographics Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore a less-discussed economic consequence of aging populations and falling birth rates: the shift in global trade flows. Using the example of Japan's changing export profile—from cars to robotics and automation equipment—they examine how countries with shrinking workforces become net exporters of labor-saving technology. They also loo...

In this episode of The Demographics Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore how an aging workforce is changing the way companies approach innovation. They focus on a specific case: how Siemens adapted its R&D strategy as its German workforce aged, shifting from radical breakthroughs to incremental process improvements and knowledge-retention programs. The conversation digs into the numbers: companies with...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how entrepreneurs over 50 are launching businesses at record rates, creating a new wave of 'silver startups' that challenge traditional views on aging and innovation. They discuss data from the Kauffman Foundation showing that nearly 25% of new entrepreneurs in 2025 were aged 55 to 64, and examine a case study from Japan where a 72-year-old founded a robotic...

Episode 13 of The Demographics Podcast explores the economic rise of 'silver startups' — businesses founded by entrepreneurs aged 55 and older. Lucas and Luna examine how older founders bring distinct advantages: decades of industry expertise, larger professional networks, and often more patient capital. They dive into data from the Kauffman Foundation showing that Americans 55-64 now account for...

When parents can't or won't care for their children, grandparents step in—and it has real economic consequences. In the United States alone, roughly 2.5 million grandparents are raising their grandchildren, a number that has grown significantly since 2000. This episode explores the hidden economic burden of 'skipped-generation households' on retirement savings, labor force participation, and publi...

In this episode of The Demographics Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore why the US birth rate is falling below the replacement level and what that means for economic growth, Social Security solvency, and the housing market. They drill into the specific number — a fertility rate of 1.66 in 2024 — and compare it with countries like Japan and South Korea. The conversation touches on the role of immigrati...

Episode 10 of The Demographics Podcast examines the economic double-edged sword of caregiver migration. Lucas and Luna focus on the Philippines and the United States — two countries at opposite ends of the care chain. The Philippines sends over 200,000 nurses and caregivers abroad each year, generating $35 billion in remittances but leaving its own aging population underserved. The U.S. relies on...

In this episode of The Demographics Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore how raising the retirement age affects economic output, using Denmark's 2024 pension reform as a case study. They break down the specific mechanism: how a one-year delay in average retirement increases labor supply, boosts tax revenue, and reduces dependency ratios without requiring higher fertility or immigration. The conversatio...

While much of the developed world frets about aging populations and shrinking birth rates, Africa is poised to become the planet's youngest continent by 2050. In this episode of The Demographics Podcast, Lucas and Luna examine the economic implications of Africa's youth bulge. They zero in on Nigeria's median age of just 18.2 years, the slow pace of industrialisation, and what economists call the...