At its core, my work weaves together the heavy trends of geopolitics and demographics into a tapestry that can be viewed from any number of directions. Most folks in spaces political, economic or strategic tend to gloss over demography. Much to their detriment in my opinion. Yes, decades-long trends take decades to play out, but once they arrive, they have decades of steam behind them and have become absolutely irresistible. Glaciers are boring until they punch you in the face.

So with just a touch of fanfare this holiday season we’re launching an open-ended video series on the guts and glory of all things demographic. We’ll start today with a bit of a what’s-what, before delving into a small army of countries, topics and forecasts.

We’ll begin today with a run through of the demographic patterns of the past several decades so you can take an educated stab at the issues in play.