Demographic transition and achieving the SDGs in Latin America and the Caribbean: A regional overview of the National Transfer Accounts

Abstract

In the context of the rapidly advancing population ageing, the region of Latin America and the Caribbean is currently facing an unprecedented challenge of adapting to the transformed - yet, still evolving - age structure of the population. The paper provides a regional synthesis of the National Transfer Accounts on the basis of the most recent NTA estimates from 10 LAC countries. Despite the greatly varying length of the per capita lifecycle surplus among the countries, the regional average stands at 26 years, with individuals below 30 and above 56 years old experiencing periods of deficits. At the aggregate level, children and youths continue being the biggest ‘burden’ to the regional economy and their deficit is mainly financed by private transfers. Public transfers are the principal financing flow of the older persons’ deficit. Using the UN population projections, the paper further illustrates the potential impacts of the expected demographic changes.