The one-sentence truth: Demography moves slowly, but because it changes the number and composition of people, its consequences can reach almost every institution.
Core vocabulary
Ageing population, fertility rate, dependency ratio, household formation, caregiving burden, intergenerational equity, longevity, migration, youth transition, demographic dividend.
Ageing
Population ageing changes healthcare demand, labour supply, fiscal pressure and caregiving. Avoid presenting older adults only as a burden; longevity can also expand productive and social contribution when institutions adapt.
Fertility
Fertility decisions can be influenced by housing, childcare, labour-market expectations, gender roles, opportunity cost and cultural norms. One incentive rarely explains the whole outcome.
Dependency
A dependency ratio describes the relationship between populations likely to require support and those in working ages. It is a structural indicator, not a judgement about individual productivity.
Youth
Avoid treating young people as one group. Education, income, family background, online environment and life stage create different incentives and vulnerabilities.
Intergenerational equity
Policies can shift costs across generations: debt, pensions, climate damage, housing and public investment all raise questions about who benefits now and who pays later.
Example sentence
“Low fertility becomes economically consequential not simply because fewer children are born, but because the age structure changes the balance among labour supply, caregiving demand and public expenditure over time.”
Singapore application
Singapore’s ageing, migration, housing, labour market and family-policy context creates rich AQ material. Use these features to explain mechanisms and trade-offs rather than simply cite demographic facts.
Continue the JC2 GP vocabulary system
Return to General Paper Vocabulary Year 2 (JC2) and Vocabulary for Junior College (JC1–JC2).
Final thought
Demography is the slow mathematics underneath many fast political debates.