It’s taken as a truism that an aging population, aka demographic decline, is a death kneel to economic growth. Originally published at VoxEUGlobally declining birth rates have, over the last seven decades, slowed population growth and raised average ages. Countries with lower birth rates have higher GDP growth per working-age adult, and US commuting zones with lower birth rates have faster wage growth. Editors’ note: This column is based on CEPR Discussion Paper 21673 “Baby busts and growth booms: Demographic change and the macroeconomy”. Over the past seven decades, birth rates have declined sharply across the globe, as seen in Figure 1.