This document analyses the results of a survey conducted by the Latin American and Caribbean Demographic Centre (CELADE) - Population Division of ECLAC in the framework of activities underway to develop systems of indicators for follow-up to the Programme of Action on Population and Development established at the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) of 1994, and to the Latin American and Caribbean Regional Plan of Action on Population and Development, which was approved in its final form in 1996. The data from this survey, which was conducted in late 2000, was complemented with selected information from the Eighth United Nations Inquiry among Governments on Population and Development, conducted by the Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs at the United Nations Secretariat in 1998, and from the Inquiry on Country-Level Experiences since the International Conference on Population and Development, which was conducted, also in 1998, by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

The Latin American Economic Outlook 2019: Development in Transition (LEO 2019) presents a fresh analytical approach in the region. It assesses four development traps relating to productivity, social vulnerability, institutions and the environment.

Latin American countries are in the midst of a demographic transition and, as a consequence, a population-aging process. Over the next few decades, the number of children will decline relative to the number of older adults. Population aging is the result of a slow but sustained reduction in mortality rates, given increases in life expectancy and fertility. These trends reflect welcome long-term improvements in welfare and in economic and social development. But this process also entails policy challenges: many public institutions—including education, health, and pension systems and labor market regulations—are designed for a different demographic context and will need to be adapted. When We’re Sixty-Four discusses public policies aimed at overcoming the two main challenges facing Latin American countries concerning the changing demographics. On one hand, older populations demand more fiscal resources for social services, such as health, long-term care, and pensions. On the other, population aging produces shifts in the proportion of the population that is working age, which may affect long-term economic growth. Aging societies risk losing dynamism, being exposed to higher dependency rates, and experiencing lower savings rates. Nonetheless, in the interim, Latin American countries have a demographic opportunity: a temporary decline in dependency rates creates a period in which the share of the working-age population, with its associated saving capacity, is at its highest levels. This constitutes a great opportunity in the short term because the higher savings may result in increases in capital endowment per worker and productivity. For that to happen, it is necessary to generate institutional, financial, and fiscal conditions that promote larger savings and investment, accelerating per capita economic growth in a sustainable way.

The Latin America and Caribbean region contributes about 10 percent of the world's growth and is projected to continue to do so into the next century. Its population is expected to double by 2040.