Population of eight million Korean market

Iran in the 1970s was rather different from Iran today. One could easily see in Teheran young women in miniskirts, reading Vogue magazine. Just like France, Iran was one of the big wine producing and consuming countries. Iranian nightclubs never slept. The pro-American, Pahlavi dynasty brought the American wave of abundance to the country. Iran became the 7th largest economy in the world in 1991.

With the lifting of the economic sanctions which contained Iran for a long time, many eminent world newspapers are predicting hopes for the country’s return to its golden age. Big investors from all over the world, suffering from the global recession which hit at the beginning of the year, welcome Iran’s reopening with open arms.     

The reason why Iran gets attention from the world is very simple: Iranian market is the biggest market with its large population. Iran which is home to 80 million people is the most populous country in the Middle East. The country has an extremely sound foundation, thanks to the high population and abundant resources, even while the Western world contained it with economic sanctions. One can count only seven countries, including Germany, US, China, Japan, Brazil, Russia and Mexico in the world that have higher population and higher per capita income than Iran. Iran also has a youthful population with an increase of five million in the last five years. The reason why Chinese president Xi Jinping and Western investors have hastily reached out a hand to Iran is that they all saw investment opportunities in the huge population of 80 million Iranian market.

The vigilance of Saudi Arabia, which once considered itself as the leader of the Middle East, also comes from Iran’s population. Saudi Arabia with only 1/3 of the population of the Iranian population cannot do anything other than just watch Western investment going to Iran. If Germany is playing the role of EU leader, it is thanks to its highest population in Europe with 80 million. If Japan still keeps the 3rd position in the world economy, it is thanks to its high population of more than 100 million.  

Population is the strongest resource for economic activities. People make and circulate money. There is obviously not much hope for a country’s future when population decreases. That is why Korea’s future is bleak as the country flounders at the edge of the population cliff. This year will be a turning point for the history of the Korean population. The size of the economically active population (aged between 15 and 64) will hit the peak of 37.04 million and will decrease again from 2017. A decline in fertility rates slows down population growth as well as economic vigor.  

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