Logistics and Supply Chain Management, 6th Edition

Emerging mega-trends

Of the many emerging trends that will impact the shape of supply chains in the future, perhaps the most critical are those to do with demographics and changes in global spending patterns.

Some of these demographic and wealth redistribution changes include:

• ●A projected increase in the world’s population from somewhere in the region of 7 billion today to over 9 billion by 2050. At the same time, age profiles are changing differentially across countries and regions and this combined with cross-border migration means that some countries’ populations will grow whilst others will shrink. As a result, spending patterns are likely to change causing some markets to expand and others to decline.
• ●The United Nations reports that ...