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Page last updated at 02:16 GMT, Thursday, 9 October 2008 03:16 UK
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Brazil foresees population slump

By Gary Duffy
BBC News, Sao Paulo

Young people in Brazil
Some fear Brazil will no longer be known as a young country

Brazil's population is getting older and will start to decline by the year 2030 a new government report has found.

The study from Brazil's Economic Research Institute attributes the change to fertility rates that have fallen sharply over the last 40 years.

In 1992 people under the age of 15 made up nearly 34% of the population and in 2007 that figure fell to just over 25%.

In the same period the number of Brazilians over 60 rose from almost 8% of the population to almost 11%.

As with many countries around the world, Brazil is confronted with the fact that its population is getting older and will cost more to support.

Some 15 million pensioners were receiving social security benefits in 2007, helping to reduce the level of poverty among older people.

The Economic Research Institute's study says that with bigger incomes there is a tendency to have fewer children per family and that the number of pregnancies among adolescents has fallen in all regions of the country.

According to the research there will be 204 million Brazilians in the year 2030 but five years later the population will have fallen back to 200 million.

However it is the changing profile that seems to have attracted most attention, with one publication appearing to lament, in its words, "that Brazil is no longer going to be known as a country of young people".

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