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This paper aims to analyze general development trend of China’s population and to forecast China’s total population under the change of China’s family planning policy so as to measure shock disturbance effects on China’s population development.

China has been the most populous country for hundreds of years. And this state will be sustained in the forthcoming decade. Obviously, China is confronted with greater pressure on controlling total scale of population than any other country. Meanwhile, controlling population will be beneficial for not only China but also the whole world. This paper first analyzes general development trend of China’s population total amount, sex ratio and aging ratio. The mechanism for measurement of the impact effect of a policy shock disturbance is proposed. Linear regression model, exponential curve model and grey Verhulst model are adopted to test accuracy of simulation of China’s total population. Then considering the policy shock disturbance on population, discrete grey model, DGM (1, 1), and grey Verhulst model were adopted to measure how China’s one-child policy affected its total population between 1978 and 2015. And similarly, the grey Verhulst model and scenario analysis of economic developing level were further used to forecast the effect of adjustment from China’s one-child policy to two-child policy.

Results show that China has made an outstanding contribution toward controlling population; it was estimated that China prevented nearly 470 million births since the late 1970s to 2015. However, according to the forecast, with the adjustment of the one-child policy, the birth rate will be a little higher, China’s total population was estimated to reach 1,485.59 million in 2025. Although the scale of population will keep increasing, but it is tolerable for China and sex ratio and trend of aging will be relieved obviously.

The approach constructed in the paper can be used to measure the effect of population change under the policy shock disturbance. It can be used for other policy effect measurement problems under shock events’ disturbance.

The paper succeeded in studying the mechanism for the measurement of the post-impact effect of a policy and the effect of changes in China’s population following the revision of the one-child policy. The mechanism is useful for solving system forecasting problems and can contribute toward improving the grey decision-making models.

The purpose of this paper is to answer the following two questions: Will Saudi Arabia get older? Will its pension system be sustainable?

The methodology/approach is to forecast KSA’s population with wavelet analysis combined with the Burg model which fits a pth order autoregressive model to the input signal by minimizing (least squares) the forward and backward prediction errors while constraining the autoregressive parameters to satisfy the Levinson-Durbin recursion, then relies on an infinite impulse response prediction error filter.

Spectral analysis projections of Saudi age groups are more optimistic than the Bayesian probabilistic model sponsored by the United Nations Population Division: Saudi Arabia will not get older as fast as projected by the United Nations model. The KSA’s pension system will stay sustainable based on spectral analysis, whereas it will not based on the U.N. model.

Spectral analysis will provide better insight and understanding of population dynamics for Saudi government policymakers, as well as economic, health and pension planners.

The purpose of this paper is to estimate the years the European Muslim population will be majority among 30 European countries.

The methodology/approach is to forecast the population of 30 European countries with wavelet analysis combined with the Burg model which fits a pth order autoregressive model to the input signal by minimizing (least squares) the forward and backward prediction errors while constraining the autoregressive parameters to satisfy the Levinson–Durbin recursion, then relies on an infinite impulse response prediction error filter. Three scenarios are considered: the zero-migration scenario where the authors assume that the Muslim population has a higher fertility (one child more per woman, on average) than other Europeans, mirroring a global pattern; a 2017 migration scenario: to the Muslim population obtained in the zero-migration scenario, the authors add a continuous flow of migrants every year based on year 2017; the mid-point migration scenario is obtained by averaging the data of the two previous scenarios.

Among three scenarios, the most likely mid-point migration scenario identifies 13 countries where the Muslim population will be majority between years 2085 and 2215: Cyprus (in year 2085), Sweden (2125), France (2135), Greece (2135), Belgium (2140), Bulgaria (2140), Italy (2175), Luxembourg (2175), the UK (2180), Slovenia (2190), Switzerland (2195), Ireland (2200) and Lithuania (2215). The 17 remaining countries will never reach majority in the next 200 years.

The growing Muslim population will change the face of Europe socially, politically and economically. This paper will provide a better insight and understanding of Muslim population dynamics to European governments, policymakers, as well as social and economic planners.

Forecasting population movement trends is crucial for implementing effective policies to regulate labor force growth and understand demographic changes. Combining migration theory expertise and neural network technology can bring a fresh perspective to international migration forecasting research.

This study proposes a conditional generative adversarial neural network model incorporating the migration knowledge – conditional generative adversarial network (MK-CGAN). By using the migration knowledge to design the parameters, MK-CGAN can effectively address the limited data problem, thereby enhancing the accuracy of migration forecasts.

The model was tested by forecasting migration flows between different countries and had good generalizability and validity. The results are robust as the proposed solutions can achieve lesser mean absolute error, mean squared error, root mean square error, mean absolute percentage error and R² values, reaching 0.9855 compared to long short-term memory (LSTM), gated recurrent unit, generative adversarial network (GAN) and the traditional gravity model.

This study is significant because it demonstrates a highly effective technique for predicting international migration using conditional GANs. By incorporating migration knowledge into our models, we can achieve prediction accuracy, gaining valuable insights into the differences between various model characteristics. We used SHapley Additive exPlanations to enhance our understanding of these differences and provide clear and concise explanations for our model predictions. The results demonstrated the theoretical significance and practical value of the MK-CGAN model in predicting international migration.

This article surveys recent developments in the evaluation of point and density forecasts in the context of forecasts made by vector autoregressions. Specific emphasis is placed on highlighting those parts of the existing literature that are applicable to direct multistep forecasts and those parts that are applicable to iterated multistep forecasts. This literature includes advancements in the evaluation of forecasts in population (based on true, unknown model coefficients) and the evaluation of forecasts in the finite sample (based on estimated model coefficients). The article then examines in Monte Carlo experiments the finite-sample properties of some tests of equal forecast accuracy, focusing on the comparison of VAR forecasts to AR forecasts. These experiments show the tests to behave as should be expected given the theory. For example, using critical values obtained by bootstrap methods, tests of equal accuracy in population have empirical size about equal to nominal size.

As an important carrier of sustainable economy and social development, population is the foundation of the whole society. Scientific predictions of future population growth will bring great reference to macro-economic and social planning. For China, as a country of the biggest population, the research on its population policy is worthwhile.

Previous literatures on population growth prediction are generally based on time-series analysis. However, the new two-child policy in China provides us an opportunity to predict the population growth from the perspective of the welfare efficiency, since each family is able to determine whether to have the second child on account of the family’s utility. The welfare efficiency is calculated through the database of newborn babies, disposable income per capita, living resource per capita, and health expenditure pre capital. These are the main factors by which each family decides whether to bear additional babies. In this chapter, we perform the micro-economic analysis on a new policy and propose a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method to predict the population growth. Under the condition of policy adjustment, we successfully predict the population growth with this method. We also propose some suggestions concerning the implementation of the new policy.

The purpose of this paper is to predict the population of Anhui province. The authors analyze the trend of the main demographic indicators.

On the basis of the main methods of statistics, this paper studies the tendency of the population of Anhui province. It mainly analyzes the sex structure and the age structure of the current population. Based on the GM(1,1) model, this paper forecasts the total population, the population sex structure, and the population age structure of Anhui province in the next ten years.

The results show that the total population was controlled well, but there have been many problems of the population structure, such as the aging population, high sex ratio, heavy social dependency burden, and the declining labor force.

This paper forecasts the main indexes of the population of Anhui province and provides policy recommendations for the government and the relevant departments.

This paper utilizes data analysis method and the grey forecasting model to study the tendency of the population problems in Anhui province.

The purpose of the paper is to forecast economic indicators of the Saudi economy in the context of low oil prices which have taken a toll on the Saudi oil-dependent economy between 2014 and 2017. Trades and investments have plummeted, leading to significant budget deficits. In response, the government unveiled a plan called Saudi Vision 2030 in 2016 which has triggered structural economic reforms leading to an unprecedented strategy of transition from an oil-driven economy to a modern market economy.

This paper forecasts with spectral analysis economic indicators of the Saudi economy up to 2030 to provide a clearer picture of the future economy assuming that the effects of recent reforms have not yet been traced by most of the economic indicators.

2018–2030 forecasts are all bearish except West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil price expected to average $64.40 during the period 2019–2030. Two additional exceptions are the Saudi population that should grow to 40 million in 2030 and the swelling gross domestic product (GDP) generated by the non-oil sector resulting from bold actions of the Saudi government who is willing to become less dependent on revenues generated by the oil sector.

Government policymakers, economists and investors would have with spectral forecasts better insight and understanding of the Saudi economy dynamics at the early stage of major economic reforms implemented in the country. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has brutally hurt the Saudi economy following a collapse in the global demand for oil and an oversupplied industry. The impact on the Saudi economy will depend on the optimal response brought by its government.

Saudi Vision 2030 plan has already triggered a deep transformation of the Saudi society that is reviewed in this paper.

The forecast of Saudi economic indicators is a timely topic considering the challenges facing the economy and reforms being undertaken. Applying an original forecasting technique to economic indicators adds to the originality of the paper.

This paper's objective is to provide improvement plans that take into account problems in the housing sector, as well as low fertility and demographic problems caused by aging, by suggesting long‐term policy directions considering all future possible changes in fertility and housing policies.

This research analyzes age specific fertility rates by socioeconomic index, composition of three scenarios about the total fertility rate, the forecast of the future population by the cohort component method, and the forecast of housing demand according to the Mankiw‐Weil (M‐W) model.

If the fertility rate increases through improvements in socioeconomic conditions, then we see that housing demand also increases. If the fertility rate level is higher than that of scenario 3, then a housing demand decrease comes later. However, even if the low fertility rate issue is addressed, the problem with the housing market due to the aging is expected to continue for the time being.

If the population decrease cohort is accumulated due to the continuously low fertility, then it will cause an increase in the reduction effect of housing demand. Considering housing spaces, the elderly require a relatively large amount of available space in Korea where the aged population is rapidly increasing. This increase in seniors could counterbalance the reduced demand for housing.

This is a long‐term‐oriented paper about housing demand and the changing trends in Korea, which is undergoing demographic changes due to low fertility and ongoing aging. We need to monitor fertility rates and the structure of population changes to achieve a stable housing market, and we should also recognize that these structural changes by age will have diverse ripple effects on housing demand.

The last reformation in Iran’s population policy was announced inside “General Population Policy” (GPP) in 2013. One of the main objectives of the GPP is controlling population aging. The aim was to designing and evaluating different scenarios for achieving this objective.

For this purpose, a system dynamics model was built from cohort age groups. The model simulated Iran’s population structure from 2000 to 2050. The system dynamics model was validated in 2000 till 2011 period (R² = 94%). Data were extracted from the United Nations population division repository and represent a reducing trend in the fertility rate of Iran. This situation was named the “base” scenario. The simulation results for this scenario showed that Iran will face aging such that between 2000 and 2050 the median age will increase from 25 to 43 years. Based on these results, the base scenario could not achieve the GPP objective. So three alternative scenarios were designated: stabilization, increasing and hyper increasing.

The median age and the aging index are descending only in the hyper increasing scenario which means controlling aging. Therefore, the hyper increasing scenario is the only way to realize the GPP’s objective. To realize the hyper increasing scenario, it is essential to consider the total dependency ratio which shows the level of pressure on the workforce. Reducing this pressure increases the propensity to have more children (fertility index) and this is essential for maintaining high fertility rate.

The value of the research rests on a precise simulation model to forecast the population structure and aging. The research will serve as a guide for Iranian policymaker and support strong recommendations to bring the GPP along with supporting policies such as childbearing and child care assistance.