How policymakers respond to Europe’s many challenges—from Russian aggression to sluggish economic growth to the shift to clean energy - will shape the continent for decades to come. In the face of these trials, however, they overlook something slower but equally as important: the global demographic transition.

This week, Mark Leonard is joined by Alberto Rizzi, ECFR policy fellow, to discuss what effect a shrinking and ageing global population is having on 21st-century geopolitics. Building on Alberto’s new policy brief, they discusses the changing demography of the EU and European states and broader global trends—from China and Russia’s dwindling birth and death rates, to America’s relatively optimistic demographic outlook.

But is a bigger population always an inherent advantage? And how can European policymakers maintain Europe’s global power in the face of demographic change?

The podcast was recorded on June 5th 2025

Bookshelf:

Markets, migrants, microchips: European power in a world of demographic change by Alberto Rizzi

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