Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds a publication of the National Intelligence Council To view electronic version:

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Global Trends 2030 Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds is the fifth installment in the National Intelligence Council’s series aimed at providing a framework for thinking about the future. The report is intended to stimulate strategic thinking by identifying critical trends and potential discontinuities. The report distinguishes between megatrends, those factors that will likely occur under any scenario, and game-changers, critical variables whose trajectories are far less certain.

Megatrend 1: Individual Empowerment Individual empowerment will accelerate owing to poverty reduction, growth of the global middle class, greater educational attainment, widespread use of new communications and manufacturing technologies, and health-care advances. The growth of the global middle class constitutes a tectonic shift: for the first time, a majority of the world’s population will not be impoverished, and the middle classes will be the most important social and economic sector in the vast majority of countries around the world.

Megatrend 2: Diffusion of Power Asia will have surpassed North America and Europe combined in terms of global power, based upon GDP, population size, military spending, and technological investment. China alone will probably have the largest economy, surpassing that of the United States a few years before 2030.

Megatrend 2: Diffusion of Power In a tectonic shift, the health of the global economy increasingly will be linked to how well the developing world does—more so than the traditional West. In addition to China, India, and Brazil, regional players such as Colombia, Indonesia, Nigeria, South Africa, and Turkey will become especially important to the global economy. Meanwhile, the economies of Europe, Japan, and Russia are likely to continue their slow relative declines.

Megatrend 3: Demographic Patterns The demographic arc of instability will narrow. Economic growth might decline in “aging” countries. Sixty % of the world’s population will live in urbanized areas; migration will increase. In 2030 there will be 8.3 billion people (up from 7.1 billion in 2012)

Demographic Trends 1.aging —a tectonic shift for both for the West and increasingly most developing countries; 2.still-significant but shrinking number of youthful societies and states; 3.migration, which will increasingly be a cross-border issue; and 4.growing urbanization—another tectonic shift, which will spur economic growth but could put new strains on food and water

Demographic Trends Owing to rapid urbanization in the developing world, the volume of urban construction for housing, office space, and transport services over the next 40 years could roughly equal the entire volume of such construction to date in world history.

Megatrend 4: Food, Water, Energy Nexus Demand for these resources will grow substantially owing to an increase in the global population. Tackling problems pertaining to one commodity will be linked to supply and demand for the others. Demand for food, water, and energy will grow by approximately 35, 40, and 50% respectively owing to an increase in the global population and the consumption patterns of an expanding middle class.

Food, Water, Energy Nexus Climate change will worsen the outlook for the availability of these critical resources. Climate change analysis suggests that the severity of existing weather patterns will intensify, with wet areas getting wetter and dry and arid areas becoming more so. Much of the decline in precipitation will occur in the Middle East and northern Africa as well as western Central Asia, southern Europe, southern Africa, and the US Southwest.