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Between 2015 and 2050, India's working-age population is projected to expand by 33% (~285 million people) – in stark contrast to the grim demographic trends facing China and most developed economies, which will struggle to support ballooning numbers of retirees even as their labor forces shrink.  For more on this topic, check out the Demographics dispatch.
Today, two-thirds of Indians still live in rural areas – making the country roughly as urbanized as China in 1995, South Korea in 1965, Japan in 1935, Europe in 1905, or America in 1885. However, India's rural-to-urban migration is gathering pace. Over the next two decades, its urban areas are forecast to gain a New York City's worth of new residents every ten months – laying the groundwork for an extended period of elevated economic growth.  India has the youngest population among the world’s twenty largest economies. Two-thirds of its 1.3 billion people are 35 or under; the roughly half a billion Indians who are under 20 years old account for one-fifth of the entire world’s young people.  For more on this topic, check out the Demographics dispatch.
For a deeper dive into India's political and economic history, check out the dispatches covering the lead-up to India’s 1991 crisis (“India before 1991: tiger caged”), the reforms unleashed by that year’s events (“India since 1991: tiger uncaged”), and the parts of the economy in which India's post-1991 liberalization remains a work in progress ("India's unfinished revolution").
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