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Western Europe’s demographic difficulties are pronounced, the region’s population is aging, deaths will soon exceed births, working age manpower is about to begin an indefinite decline, and assimilation of immigrants has been proving increasingly difficult. But according to AEI’s Nicholas Eberstadt and Pfizer Global Health Fellow Hans Groth, M.D., the continent’s demographic outlook is not entirely bleak.

In Europe’s Coming Demographic Challenge: Unlocking the Value of Health (AEI Press: November 2007), Eberstadt and Groth argue that Western Europeans also enjoy one tremendous demographic advantage: the phenomenon of pervasive “healthy aging.” The health status of older Europeans even compares favorably to their American counterparts. Healthy aging offers significant opportunities for economic growth and development for Europe in the decades ahead—if governments and citizens are willing to grasp them. Yet in Western Europe today, prejudicial economic and social policies are driving older workers away from the labor force. For the region to capitalize on a healthy older workforce, it must reverse this retreat from employing the elderly.

Please join authors Eberstadt and Groth and discussant Jim Kolbe, former U.S. representative and current senior transatlantic fellow at the German Marshall Fund, for an enlightening conversation about Europe’s demographic prospects, the economic possibilities from “healthy aging,” and the policy questions that must be addressed if that economic potential is to be realized. AEI’s Megan Davy will moderate.

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