British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher once said, “The trouble with Socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money.” Unless the Europeans start having more children, or increase immigration levels, Europe’s senior citizens will eventually run out of their children’s money.
The demographic challenges of the European Union are far greater than the United States. In 2019, the European Union had 90.5 million senior citizens (ages 65 and over) and not a single member of the European Union had a birthrate above replacement.
Instead of two children to replace two parents, the overall birthrate in the EU was 1.53 births per woman in 2019. Among the members of the EU, this figure ranged 1.86 in France to 1.14 in Malta.
If the Europeans don’t have enough children, they will not have an adequate base of taxpayers to pay for their welfare state. America’s demographics are not as bad as the European Union, but we are certainly heading in their direction.
The total fertility rate among American women dropped from 2.12 in 2007 to 1.64 in 2020. According the CDC, there were only 3.6 million babies born in the United States in 2020, which is the lowest number of births since 1979.
In the last decade, the dependency ratio in the United States has increased. The dependent population is defined as the combined population of seniors and young people who are supported by the working population of Americans ages 15 to 64.
According to the Census Bureau, between 2010 to 2019, “The non-working-age population grew by 13.1 million, a 12.9% increase, while the working-age population increased by a modest 6.4 million or 3.1%.” Fortunately, the working-age population is still almost twice as large as the rest of the population.
In 2019, there were 213.6 million Americans ages 15 to 64. American workers were supporting a youthful population under 15 (60.57 million) and 54 million senior citizens.
The dependency ratio of just senior citizens to the working-age population in the United States was 25.3 in 2019. In the 27 nations of the European Union, this number was 32 in 2020.
Among EU members, the dependency ratio of senior ranges from as high as Italy at 36.2 to Luxemburg’s 21.
The combined population of the 27 EU members was 447.7 million in 2020. Since 2012, the number of deaths has exceeded the number of births in the European Union.
The population would already be declining without migration. Among the EU-27 countries, they had 21.8 million immigrants in 2019.
The United States needs the European Union to remain a relevant power on the global stage According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), in 2021, the nominal GDP of the United States ($22.94 trillion) and the European Union ($17.08 trillion) were both still larger than China’s economy ($16.86 trillion).
Even if China’s economy surpasses the United States, in nominal GDP, it is unlikely that China will ever have an economy larger than the combined economic power of the United States and the European Union.
The United States and the European Union have other wealthy democracies as allies to help them take on China. In 2021, the combined GDP of Japan ($5.1 trillion), the United Kingdom ($3.11 trillion), India ($2.95 trillion), Canada ($2.02 trillion), South Korea ($1.82 trillion), Australia ($1.61 trillion), and New Zealand (247.64 billion) was $17 trillion dollars (slightly larger than China).
China’s only real friend is Putin. Russia had a nominal GDP of $1.65 trillion in 2021.
If the West is going to maintain its economic dominance abroad, and preserve an adequate safety net at home, we need to have a conversation in the United States and the European Union on how we can make it more affordable for young people to have children.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, from 1990 to 2020, the average family income in the United States increased by 143%. In the same period, child care costs increased by 214%.
We need Republicans and Democrats to work together to find solutions to tackle inflation and make it easier for families to have children. I believe it is still possible for Republicans and Democrats to work together despite all the vicious partisanship on cable news and social media.
A recent example of bipartisan collaboration was the book: The Age of AI: And Our Human Future. It discusses on how artificial intelligence will radically change our society in the near future.
This book was co-authored by former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (Republican) and former CEO of Google Eric Schmidt (Democrat) along with Daniel Huttenlocher who is the dean of the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing.
Robert Zapesochny is a researcher and writer whose work focuses on foreign affairs, national security and presidential history. He has been published in numerous outlets, including The American Spectator, the Washington Times, and The American Conservative. When he's not writing, Robert works for a medical research company in New York. Read Robert Zapesochny's Reports — More Here.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.