What is the ideal median age for a country with a population greater than 10 million? What is the ideal demographic profile, long-term? What is the optimal healthcare expenditure as a percentage of GDP?
My personal shortcut for a human development index (HDI) is a combination of median age and Gini co-efficient: a high median age and low Gini equals a high HDI; a low median age and low Gini is not likely to obtain anywhere in the world and most countries with a low HDI have high Ginis with variable median ages, however larger populations tend to have lower median ages because of high fertility, high maternal and infant mortality and low life expectancy.
The ideal demographic profile does not exist – it is too complex, depending on the size of the population, extant infrastructure, literacy levels, life expectancy, savings levels….
The optimal healthcare expenditure too is complex and depends on gains to be made by spending on infrastructure, education, public health and security. Most non-healthcare expenditures tend to have higher health related benefits than direct healthcare expenditures. In all cases, I would expect the optimum healthcare expenditure to be less than education related expenditures.
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