Demographic Trends, Policy Influences, and Economic Effects in China and India Through 2025

This paper compares the recent and likely future demographic situations in China and India and their implications. This is a background paper for the chapter, "Population Trends in China and India: Demographic Dividend or Demographic Drag?. in the RAND report, China And India, 2025: A Comparative Assessment, MG-1009-OSD, by Charles Wolf, Jr., Siddhartha Dalal, Julie DaVanzo, Eric V. Larson, Alisher R. Akhmedjonov, Harun Dogo, Meilinda Huang, and Silvia Montoya, and contains some of material referenced therein. The RAND report was done under the sponsorship of the Office of Net Assessment with the objective of understanding how China and India will compare to one another in 2020-2025 with regards to demographics, economic growth, science and technology and military spending.