Society and Solidarity

The Yearbook of International Religious Demography presents an annual snapshot of the state of religious statistics around the world. Every year large amounts of data are collected through censuses, surveys, polls, religious communities, scholars, and a host of other sources. These data are collated and analysed by research centers and scholars around the world. [...]

Rising inequality will be the single most prominent societal challenge for the EU in the coming decades, says a newly published report titled “Europe’s Societal Challenges. An analysis of global societal trends to 2030 and their impact on the EU”. The authors argue that because the EU is entering an era of long-term slow economic growth, it cannot rely on productivity growth as the engine for wellbeing. The EU must invest in its human resources, giving citizens the tools to seize all the opportunities that come their way, by boosting health, inclusion, education, skills and connectivity. [...]

This book, edited by Axel Börsch-Supan, Martina Brandt, Howard Litwin, and Guglielmo Weber, is based on the most recent waves of SHARE (Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe) data collected in 2010/2011. It examines the various influences the recent crisis had on the lives of people aged 50 and over in 16 European countries. Its main purpose is to provide scientific evidence of what has changed in the activities and life-circumstances of older Europeans since the crisis has begun, and how this has affected intergenerational solidarity. [...]

Variations of demographic patterns and trends range from very high fertility to sub-replacement fertility situations, from very young to aging populations, and from immigration-open to immigration-shy countries. This book, authored by John F. May, concludes that population policies are more necessary and relevant than ever for developed and developing countries. [...]

This book, edited by Gustavo de Santis, touches upon a few of the major challenges that all modern societies will have to face in the near future: how to set up a resilient pay-as-you-go pension system; whether the current balance between expenses and revenues in social expenditure is viable in the future, and, if not, what changes need to be introduced; whether the relative well-being of the current and future cohorts of the old will be preserved, and how their standards of living compare to those experienced by the old in the recent past. [...]