Demographics’ Impact on Economic Growth in Central Europe and the Baltic States

Abstract

To ensure sustainable development and public welfare, the complex impact of demographic factors on macroeconomic dynamics should be investigated properly. Moreover, a few of the Sustainable Development Goals are interconnected robustly with demographic issues. There are some trends (e.g., substantial increase in longevity, rapidly lowered fertility, etc.) common for most advanced and emerging market economies. We examined the impact of selected socio-demographic factors on the real GDP per capita growth rates in a sample of the Baltic states and the Central European countries that have experienced economic transformations in the 1990s and either entered or declared their intentions to join the European Union in the future. We investigated general demographic dynamics in the region from 1960 to 2021. Due to the data availability, our special attention was focused primarily on the highlighted countries’ socio-demographic and macroeconomic variables from 2000 to 2021. We suggested that there was a certain interdependence between the working age population stratum specific weight, the elderly demographic dependency ratio, public healthcare spending, gross capital formation, and the real GDP per capita growth rates. In addition, we propose the main priorities for social and demographic policy in the field of well-being improvement. The potential ways to enhance the model – regarding healthcare, education, and the general profile of fiscal policy – have been disclosed as well.