Countries with the youngest & oldest populations - and why it matters for real estate

Summary

Real Estate Without Borders: Countries with the Youngest & Oldest Populations - And Why It Matters for Real Estate

Release Date: July 3, 2025

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Introduction to the Episode’s Theme

In this insightful episode of Real Estate Without Borders, hosts delve into the significant impact of demographic trends—specifically, the distribution of young and senior populations across various countries—and how these trends influence real estate markets globally. The discussion intertwines personal anecdotes, data-driven analysis, and expert perspectives to provide listeners with a comprehensive understanding of the global real estate landscape shaped by population dynamics.

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Personal Experiences in Texas and Austin

The episode begins with a brief but engaging conversation about the hosts' experiences in Texas, particularly in Austin. Host A shares his impressions of Austin’s compact size, high quality of life, and friendly community:

"Everything in Austin is like a 15-minute drive. No matter what time of the day, you can get anywhere in 15 minutes with no traffic." [00:34]

Host B echoes these sentiments, emphasizing the warmth and hospitality bestowed upon them by locals, contrasting it with their recent visit to New York:

"No one's trying to rip you off here at all... it's a high trust place." [03:00]

While this segment offers a personal touch, it sets the stage for the broader discussion on how different environments influence real estate opportunities.

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Countries with the Fewest Seniors

The core of the episode focuses on identifying and analyzing countries with the lowest percentage of senior populations. Host B leads this segment by explaining the concept of the replacement rate—the number of births required to keep the population size stable, typically defined as 2.1 births per woman:

"The replacement rate is defined as 2.1 births per woman. So that would be keeping the population the same by having 2.1 births per woman." [07:42]

Countries surpassing this rate generally boast younger populations. The top countries with the fewest seniors include:

1. Qatar – 1.7% of the population over 65
2. United Arab Emirates (UAE) – 1.8%
3. Central African Republic
4. Chad
5. Uganda
6. Mali
7. Afghanistan
8. Yemen
9. Burundi
10. Malawi
11. Somalia
12. Niger
13. Ivory Coast

Host B highlights that most of these countries are in Africa, with UAE and Qatar standing out as economic powerhouses attracting immigrants:

"The top two really stood out to me because I would have assumed that this list would have been all Africa. But Qatar and the UAE." [10:19]

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Countries with the Most Children

Shifting focus, the hosts explore nations with the highest percentages of children under 18, predominantly African countries. Central African Republic leads with 56.2% of its population below 18, followed by Chad and others. Larger nations like Nigeria and Ethiopia also feature prominently due to their substantial youth populations:

"Nigeria has 112 million people under the age of 18. That's insanity." [23:28]

Host A remarks on the economic potential tied to these demographics:

"As people grow up and start their own families, they're going to drive economic growth." [25:15]

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Economic Implications and Real Estate Impact

The discussion then pivots to how these demographic trends impact economic growth and, consequently, real estate markets. Host A and B analyze the correlation between young populations and economic vitality, noting that while a youthful demographic can signal future growth, it must be supported by sound economic policies and infrastructure.

Host B observes:

"Population demographics alone won't grow your economy. You have to also have a good economy, driven by manufacturing, research and development." [29:50]

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Real Estate Markets: Qatar and Dubai

A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to examining the real estate markets in Qatar and Dubai. Host B presents data from the Global Property Guide, noting Qatar's stable housing market after a period of fluctuations:

"Their house prices seem to have peaked from a growth perspective... hovering around just above or just below zero price growth for the last five, six years." [16:51]

In contrast, Dubai’s market shows robust growth post-2021:

"Real house prices in Dubai are at about 16% year-over-year growth... Abu Dhabi's house price growth is more subdued but still impressive." [19:28]

Host A expresses curiosity about Dubai’s rapid development, comparing it to Qatar’s trajectory and hinting at future episodes focusing on specific real estate hotspots.

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Population Growth vs. Economic Performance

The hosts address a critical juxtaposition: many countries with favorable demographic profiles are simultaneously among the worst-performing economies in 2025. This paradox highlights that a young population alone does not guarantee economic prosperity.

Host A points out:

"Many of the countries with the fewest seniors are also on the list of worst-performing economies of 2025." [28:15]

Host B elaborates, citing issues like civil conflict, political instability, and lack of economic diversification as primary impediments to growth:

"Those top places are plagued by political conflict, reliance on single sources of income, and instability, which severely hinder economic growth." [32:31]

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International Migration Trends

Expanding the discussion, the episode explores the highest proportions of international migrants in various countries. Qatar leads with 76.7% of its population being international migrants, followed by the UAE, Monaco, Liechtenstein, and others. This high level of immigration is a strategic factor in maintaining low senior populations and fueling economic activities.

Host B notes:

"Countries like Qatar and the UAE run their economies on massive amounts of immigration, allowing them to sustain and grow despite having minimal native senior populations." [36:30]

In contrast, Western countries like Canada have lower proportions, highlighting different immigration dynamics and challenges in attracting high-net-worth individuals.

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Key Insights and Conclusions

The episode concludes with the hosts synthesizing their discussions, emphasizing that demographic trends are a vital but not solitary factor in real estate investment decisions. They caution that while countries with young populations and high immigration rates present potential opportunities, economic stability and growth are equally crucial.

Host A summarizes:

"Having this global information makes you a better-educated realtor and equips investors with valuable tools to navigate international markets." [43:12]

Host B adds:

"Diversity in immigrant origins can mitigate social tensions and foster more robust economic contributions, making certain countries more attractive for long-term investments." [41:12]

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Notable Quotes

• Host A on Austin’s Lifestyle:
  "Everything in Austin is like a 15-minute drive... It's pretty cool." [00:46]

• Host B on High Trust Environments:
  "No one's trying to rip you off here at all... it's a high trust place." [03:00]

• Host B on Replacement Rate:
  "The replacement rate is defined as 2.1 births per woman." [07:42]

• Host B on Economic Growth Dependencies:
  "Population demographics alone won't grow your economy. You have to also have a good economy, driven by manufacturing, research and development." [29:50]

• Host A on Real Estate Investing:
  "Having this global information makes you a better-educated realtor and equips investors with valuable tools to navigate international markets." [43:12]

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Final Thoughts

This episode of Real Estate Without Borders offers a nuanced exploration of how the distribution of young and senior populations across countries can influence real estate markets. By intertwining demographic data with economic performance insights, the hosts provide listeners with a well-rounded perspective essential for making informed investment decisions in the international real estate arena.

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Transcript

[A]

Welcome back to Real Estate Without Borders.

[B]

Big intro.

[A]

Big intro. Coming up here. This episode, we're going to talk about countries with the most seniors and countries with the most kids, but we're also going to talk about different types of markets and what those markets are seeing. We're going to talk a little bit about me being in Texas. I think that's going to take up a big chunk of it. Going to get right into it. Welcome and thanks, Dan. Appreciate. We got Cool 2 Cool. If you're listening and you're not watching, me and Dan are decked out and hungry hunting deer right now.

[B]

By accident. We did not coordinate this.

[A]

We are wearing same matching ish T shirts. I think maybe it's the lighting.

[B]

Mine says vibe session on it, though.

[A]

Oh, dude, I need to get some of these. I saw the store shout out. Dan's store. Dan is a clo. Men's clothing specialist. Yeah, most other things, but for real.

[B]

Not a specialist in anything, actually. That's. That's the key.

[A]

That's the best thing though. But yeah, honestly, it's okay. Right now. Those watching, if you're watching or listening. I'm in Texas. Just came from New York visiting my fiance's brother in Texas, filming this episode. And I wanted to touch on how awesome Texas is. Me and Dan were just talking about that at the beginning of the episode. It's an incredible place. Kendall. My fiance and I are looking at places to potentially move to, settle down maybe and just exploring. When we came to Texas, it's a super. We're in Austin specifically and Austin is super small city. For those that haven't been to Austin, it's very small, but there's tons to do. The coolest thing is, you know, we came, we live in Toronto, went to New York, and now we're in Austin. And everything in Austin is like a 15 minute drive. No matter what. Doesn't matter what time of the day, it doesn't matter where. It's like you can get anywhere in 15 minutes with no traffic. It's pretty. It's pretty cool. Like the, the gym that we've been going to is the other end of the city. It takes 15 minutes. You want to walk somewhere as close as trails everywhere. And in terms of settling down in the city where you want to live, we were analyzing different aspects of, like, what makes the city a cool place to live. And I think it comes down to me and Danvers talking about this. It comes down to like, the people and the people here are so friendly. It's insane. And I think it's because of the affordability and the super high quality of life. Great weather. It's warm all the time. I think it gets a little cold in the winters. Not too much, but I think some people said it gets a little chilly, but nothing like Canada, but everyone's so friendly. The only downfall that I can think of is there's no. I'm in Austin specifically. We're not near, like a massive body of water. I know. I think it's Houston or San Antonio is right by the Gulf.

[B]

But Houston's on the Gulf.

[A]

Yeah, Houston, but we got lots of lakes. There's lots of lakes here. We went to dinner and this girl that's the server, she's like, why are you guys in Austin? Said, well, we're just here to check it out. Potentially looking to relocate here eventually. And she went to the back and wrote hand on a handwritten note, her favorite. She, I'm born and raised Austin. Here's her favorite. Best coffee shops places work bing, bing, bing. Handwritten.

[B]

You weren't getting that in New York.

[A]

Oh, and then, yeah, we came right from New York. We spent a. A weekend in Brooklyn, and it was the complete opposite here. Like, everyone. No one's trying to rip you off here at all. If you can get free anything or.

[B]

Like a high trust. High trust place.

[A]

Yeah, it's been great.

[B]

But anyways, that's Southern hospitality, right?

[A]

It's been cool, man. It's a cool experience being here so far. And I'm driving the cyber truck and this is off topic for the pod, but whatever. I've never experienced a truck that gets so. I. I don't. I. Political views aside, nothing to do with politics.

[B]

Nobody tried to set it on fire.

[A]

Not yet. I did get a boot on it the one day I parked in a private parking lot and they. Instead of giving you like a ticket that you don't pay because it's like a private parking, they put a boot on your tire and you have to pay to get the boot off. And it was a hundred US, actually 200 bucks. But I haggled them down to 100 US, which is crazy.

[B]

But, yeah, you needed a parking ticket.

[A]

I did, yeah. It was private. It's bullshit.

[B]

I probably couldn't get your reps in.

[A]

That's right. It was an objection and I handled it. You know what I mean? But anyways, that's Texas, man. Think. I think you'd like Texas, Dan. You gotta come check it out.

[B]

I'm gonna be down. I'm coming ASAP too Many little kids to travel lots. But once they're old enough to make it easy on me, I'll be there.

[A]

Yeah. And what a. What a. What a difference from, like, New York to here. It's just. I love New York. Cool city to visit. Living there, I think it'd be a challenge for me. Not it, but that's just my opinion. Do you want to jump into this? You want to start with countries? This is a cool episode because I want to. I want to. We're going to learn together as, as always on this show, which I think is the best part. But we want to tie in the countries with the fewest seniors and the countries with the most children and tie that into, like, how those economies are performing a little bit and then tie it all back into to real estate a little bit here. Do you want to start with seniors or kids?

[B]

Let's start with seniors. I think it's on the top of the list. So why does this matter? I think is like, the first question.

[A]

I'll let you explain that because I'm figuring that out myself.

[B]

So, you know, there's this whole thing that we've talked about quite a bit on the show where, you know, there's these demographic collapses that are happening around the world and different. Different populations are aging. Right. And so where you have a lot of seniors, you either need to backfill that loss. Like Canada is a good example. Canada had more deaths than births, so our natural population growth would actually be negative. So they've been backfilling that with immigration. And you're seeing a lot of other countries around. Around the world doing this as well, because they. They can't grow their populations through natural ways, so they can't. There's not enough people having kids, basically.

[A]

Replacement rate.

[B]

Yeah, back to the replacement rate thing. So countries where you're at the lowest risk of that are kind of worth thinking about. A lot of them are in. I mean, basically the only places that are above the replacement rate right now are. Are in, like, Africa, I think. I think we. We've pulled up a map of this in the. In the past. Let me just see if I can find it.

[A]

Yeah, I think majority of these. These countries are in the African spots of the world. Like I think it says here, the Central Africa Republic tops the global chart with 56.2% of people. Oh, that's. That's number. We're going seniors first, right? Yeah, seniors here.

[B]

Yeah, but so you're like countries. You know, you look at basically all of North America, most of South America, other than a few countries, all of Africa or. Sorry. So the north and South America are basically below the replacement rate. Other than a couple of countries in Central America and a couple of countries in South America. Then Africa is above the replacement rate and a couple of countries in like the Middle east and sort of the eastern islands.

[A]

The people that are listening. Sorry. The, the replacement level is that. So it says here the replacement level is the rate at which population size remains constant from generation to generation. This is truly defined as 2.1 births per woman. So that, that would be, that would be keeping the, the population the Same is having 2.1 births per person. Woman.

[B]

Cool.

[A]

Okay. That's the definition I'm guessing here. Okay, sorry, sorry.

[B]

Keep. No, that's okay. So in a lot of countries you have a skew to older populations where basically the, the countries are like dying off almost. Right. Where you know, Italy is a good example. South Korea I think is. Has the lowest replacement rate or fertility rate. Canada's fertility rate, super low. So they're backfilling it with immigration. You know, Japan's a good example of an economy where they went through this like lost decade where their population was aging and they haven't had a ton of immigration. And now you can see the sort of long term consequences of that where there's. We've done episodes on this. There's a million empty houses in Japan. Right. So what's the opposite of that? Well, the opposite of that is countries with the fewest seniors. And that's sort of what brings us to this list. So we have this as a share of population. And I'm just going to go through the list. I'll start with the. The top. So that number one is Qatar with only 1.7% of the population or 53,000 people are over the under 65.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. Okay. Okay.

[B]

The UAE is right behind them with 1.8% of the population over 65, but that's 203,000 there. Then you have Zambia, Chad, Central African Republic, Uganda, Mali. That's all Africa. And then you have Afghanistan, Yemen. So Middle East, Burundi, Malawi, which we've had somebody on the show to talk about real estate in Malawi, a couple of other African countries, Somalia, Niger, Ivory Coast.

[A]

You went and translated that, eh? Right away. Cool.

[B]

I got in my head. Really?

[A]

Did you pre study that or is that just a. I don't know what it is.

[B]

Yeah, big geography.

[A]

Edith. New coat. Dvoiry is Ivory Coast.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You speak French. That's good stuff.

[B]

You're never going to be Prime Minister of Canada if you don't speak French.

[A]

That's right. I love it. You just threw me off there. I didn't know how you just automatically translated that, but I'm actually chatgpt, Dan. GPT is the correct language. Perfect. Sorry, continue on.

[B]

No, yeah, I mean, I think that, you know, real estate in Africa, we've talked about, you know, we had an expert on the show and he'll be back a couple of times in the future to chat about real estate in Africa. But the top two really stood out to me because I, I, I would have assumed that this list would have been all Africa. They're just.

[A]

Yeah, me too.

[B]

They're very young populations, but you know, Qatar and the UAE having the lowest percentages because both of those countries are economic powerhouses. Right.

[A]

Basically retirement free, essentially at this point at like, at that percentage.

[B]

No old, they just get rid of them.

[A]

Crazy. But I know you're on a tangent there, but just to interject, is this a lot to do, especially with what I think of the UAE and you think of Dubai. I think of international immigration. Now is, is, is it because of the, the current status of Dubai? Like, you look at Dubai and you think just as a pure blanket description, you know, it's like if I think of who's going to Dubai, I can picture that. If I close my eyes and picture who's in D, I think we all have the same picture of the person probably.

[B]

Yeah, more.

[A]

Right.

[B]

But it's interesting that that picture is different than your prototypical like person who moves somewhere. Right. Your, your like retirement or like snowbird kind of character. Right. Like if you think about who, who I think is moving to places with warm climate, a beach and like a city, I always think about my Florida, Florida boomers. Right. Like, right. I'm just going to like crush pints on the, on the beach for the rest of their lives.

[A]

Right.

[B]

But it's different now. And so that, that part is pretty fascinating, actually.

[A]

Yeah, that's interesting. I, I think I agree. Like, I thought for sure the top 10 would be mostly African countries, but Qatar and UAE. But, but are these people fully relocating? I guess there's no way to find out. I guess there is a way to find out. But are these people fully relocating there to, to reside and live full time in Dubai, the uae, Qatar, or are they snowbirds?

[B]

I mean, it's a, it's a good question. Like a lot. Well, well, a lot of people. Yeah. But I, I think this is worth thinking about because a lot of people who are moving to the uae, like move their residency there because of the tax implications. Right. So it's not like the boomer snowbirds who are coming from Canada maybe as an example, to Florida, where they're still tax residents of Canada for the most part. Right. Because it's not that easy to immigrate to, to the U.S. on paper, the UAE is a little bit different. It's easier to migrate there, especially if you have wealth. And a lot of people do choose to migrate there, change their residency so that they're now a resident of the UAE rather than whatever country they came from, be it Canada or the U.S. to get those tax benefits. Because if you're a high earner and your workplace is decentralized, so maybe if you're making a lot of your money online or whatever and you don't need to be in New York or whatever city you came from, then you can live there for. I don't know if you're going to live there the entire year. It's probably. It's like Texas where you are right now. Like, it's too hot in a lot of places to live there the entire year. Kind of like Florida too. Like, Florida is like, you could live there in the winter, but maybe not in the summer. But yeah, I, I think the people who are migrating there are actually becoming residents and they're becoming like contributors to the economy there. Whereas if people who move like it's, it's, it's very different than your prototypical snowbird kind of migration where the people are more net consumers than, than creators in the economy.

[A]

Yeah, that's cool. I agree. We talked about that a little bit, I think last episode on like with this kind of thing of who, who's moving in for what reason? The one, the kind of, the two things I'm noticing just like doing some, some studying in the background here is most of these places that have the fewest seniors, a lot of them have like very high. The reason why is because of their high fertility rate. Whereas Qatar and uae, they don't have high fertility rates. It's, it's all immigration, I think, or for the most part, a lot of it. Right. So it's kind of interesting that those top two is all based off immigration and all the Africa countries, they're all because of high fertility. Like, I think it was Chad, I'm looking at here their fertility rates, about five children per person, which is very interesting. Uganda, nearly half its citizens are under 15, which is, it sets. This kind of takes me to Our next point about like setting the stage for like workforce boom and jobs and like why this kind of matters because it's like as like as the, as the government in these countries, your, your policy focus would flip, right? Like your policy focus would flip from focusing on like, like for example in the, like in Canada and U.S. where our policy focuses a lot on pensions and geriatric care, the governments in, in these places like Dubai have to prioritize investors, schools, houses, like employment. Right, so that is a good point.

[B]

No, it is, it is an excellent point. Right. Because if you look at populations where they're aging and, and, and old people typically vote a lot more like the other piece is that these aren't really democratic. Right. So like they're kingdoms and so there's no, they actually don't need to really focus so much on policy for voters. Like whereas in, in Canada and the U.S. much of the Western world, actually Europe as well, they are, are increasingly focusing on policies for older people because older people show up to the polls a lot more than young people.

[A]

Right.

[B]

So it's a lot easier I think for these countries to be like to really lead for young people and just make policies to attract young people because they know that that's the best way to grow an economy too, right?

[A]

Yeah, yeah. No, it's smart. And it would change your whole like real estate policies and plans. Right. Because even like the type of real estate that, that those individual people are looking for would be drastically different. You know, and like maybe I'm wrong on this. You'd, you'd be the person to answer this. But I think there's a lot of like purpose built rentals being built in, in Toronto for example, you know, which I don't know is going to be overly helpful. But regardless like that real estate angle for will change depending on the type of person that lives there, obviously. Which is interesting to me for sure.

[B]

Yeah. So let's quickly like we'll tie it back to real estate here. If you look at Qatar's house prices because I thought this one was kind of interesting and just checking this on Global Property Guide right here. You know, their house prices seem to have kind of peaked from a growth perspective. Like they saw huge growth, 30 to 40% like the 2015, 2016 range. And that was when a lot of those like economies in that area were exploding. And then thereafter like 17, 18, 19, they saw negative growth and it's been kind of hovering around just above or just below zero price growth for basically the last five, six years. So no, it's not. Yeah. Pretty stable market, I would say.

[A]

Is it possible to. I know I'm putting on the spot again, but is it possible to pull this up for Dubai?

[B]

Yeah, for sure.

[A]

Only because I wonder if that's the similar. I know that. Well, I mean, from what I see on social, which I don't think you can fully trust all the time, it seems like Dubai is onto some absolute rocket ship. So I'm curious to see if the. Okay, that's kind of what I figured.

[B]

I was gonna log in here.

[A]

That's okay.

[B]

No, I have a login. I have a login. I've paid for this.

[A]

Whenever I need any information from. From websites that have any sort of great charts and graphs, I always just text fosh.

[B]

I don't know how to log in. Anyway, I'll figure it out.

[A]

Does kind of see it. Yeah, you could see it anyways, in the background, it looks like it's on a bit of a significant incline, which kind of makes sense. As to Dubai, I think Dubai. You can't really compare Dubai and Qatar at the moment anyways. I think Dubai is just already. Qatar might be the next Dubai, but that's a who. I actually have a friend that really wants to jump on the show with us from Dubai.

[B]

Yeah, let's jump on Steve.

[A]

Yeah, she's been crushing it. So. Okay, here we go.

[B]

Yeah. So I mean, Dubai, like very similar pattern, right. You saw growth. It broke above zero in 2012 through to 2014, peaking at like 35% year over year price growth. Okay. And then it dropped very sharply heading into 2016. So that was exactly like the same timing as. As your Qatari like run up and then the drop, it. It kind of rebounded and made it closer to zero, but it stayed below 0 for basically 2017, 18, 19, 20, and then not till basically the beginning of COVID or 20 looking at like 2021, growth started to recover and it's been above zero since about 2021 and growing above zero on both nominal house prices and real house prices.

[A]

Interesting.

[B]

Yeah. So on real house prices, it's right now at about 16% year over year growth, which is. Which is big. That's big growth. Big growth. It says. It says Abu Dhabi's house price growth is more subdued with all the res. With all residential property price index rising by 10.16%, which is still high. That's 7% adjusted for inflation. So real growth in November 2024 from a year earlier when.

[A]

Where's that big. Where's that? Is Abu Dhabi, where that crazy. Like a million mile indoor housing.

[B]

No, that's. That's Saudi Arabia.

[A]

Oh, that's right.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

That looks crazy.

[B]

The. What is it called? The edge. No, what is it called? It's not the crash. The line. I think it's a line.

[A]

I think you're right. We got to do a full episode on that because that looks. I probably built them like three more weeks.

[B]

Yeah. Like, it's crazy how fast they build, man.

[A]

Did you see the thing in. In the thing in Toronto? It was like, check out this stadium, their new Rogers stadium they built in nine months. And it was just like some rickety fences and some stands. People were like, you're supposed to be excited about dialing.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I don't know. Nine months is crazy.

[B]

Here's a real estate market overview from Cushman and Wakefield for Qatar for Q1, 2025. And like, look at their population growth. It's been. Been pretty substantial. Yeah. And not a huge population to begin with, but it's basically more than doubled since 2020, which is crazy. That's. Is that. That can't be right. I guess it's right. It's a chart. I'm looking at it. It's gotta be.

[A]

Zoom in.

[B]

That's 2010, right? 1 1.5 mil to over 3 mil. That's crazy.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

Over doubled.

[B]

That good on Twitter, for sure.

[A]

There you go. See, look what we just found. You want to. Okay, so let. Let's. Let's get into most children.

[B]

Yeah. So again, same kind of thing. Why are we thinking about most children? Well, because that's your youth population. Right. And populations where there's a lot of young people tend to grow because the people grow up and they become consumers and get jobs and all that stuff. Now this one is definitely going to skew more to Africa on the top. So you want to give me one here?

[A]

Yeah, yeah. So Central African Republic is number one. Actually, African Republic's 56.2% of its residents are under 18. That's the highest youth record recorded anywhere in 2025, which is crazy if you actually think about it.

[B]

You see this little part on the side here? Like off to the side where it says Africa is the youngest. Youngest continent with the median age of 19.

[A]

That's crazy. Insane. And then you have Chad in second spot with 46.74 under 18, driven by fertility rates. That's still.

[B]

There's a couple ahead of that, actually. You've got Central Africa, Niger, Somalia, Mali, Chad, drc, Burundi, Mozambique, Angola, Uganda. So Basically all Africa, drc, drc.

[A]

It's got one here that, that has like, like go down a little bit. That has like crazy on both sides. Nigeria.

[B]

Well, it's just a huge number, like a lot of these. It's easy for that number to be a high percentage because there's tiny populations, right? Like Central African Republic, it's only 3, 3.1 million people under 18. But you go to Nigeria, it's 112 million people under the age of 18, right. Like if you look on the right hand side, that's the crazy part. So Ethiopia, same thing. Like 61 million people under the age of 18.

[A]

61 million people. 112 million people under the age of 18 for Nigeria. That's insanity.

[B]

Yeah, Malawi's on here too. 10.5 million people just below Nigeria as a percentage of total. 47.4% of total. Then you've got curious like you in the Middle east, you've got Afghanistan and Yemen, right? 21 million people under 18 for that's just under 50% of Afghanistan's population and 47% of Yemen's population.

[A]

I feel like, I feel like I don't know much about these markets to be truthful. I know we've had a guest on our show who was awesome and we'll have to get them on again to kind of like recap this to be honest. But like I'm assuming this one.

[B]

Sorry, go, go finish your thought. And then, and then.

[A]

I just, I'm assume it's not that important. I just think like I'm assuming there's going to be a housing shortage. How do you have that?

[B]

Quality of housing is a lot lower than like other places. So that probably is what was, what changes it, right? Like they probably already have a housing shortage. But yeah, they will. I think you're going to see economic growth in these places even if like, you know, we see the advent of like AI and whatever. Like all those people still need places to live, right? And they're going to grow up and start their own families and you know, probably you'll see some economic growth in a lot of these countries reach the middle class or a lot of these residents will reach the middle class. Like what's happening in other high growth economies or what happened in other high growth economies prior like China, right. Or India. But check this one out, okay? Because I never heard of this country. Literally never heard of this before. And I know a lot of countries niu. I'm probably saying that wrong. It was in purple. So I was trying to Figure out because everything else, everything in orange here is Africa, right? Everything in red is Middle East. Everything in purple is Oceania. Which is interesting because I was like, what? Whoa, look at this place, dude. Look at the pictures here. Niu.

[A]

Whoa. Where is this? Google Maps.

[B]

It's a self governing island country in free association with New Zealand. Look at this on the map. It's like, wow, way out there.

[A]

Oh, you can't even. It's like, oh my God. Is it a country? This is a country.

[B]

Yeah, it's a country. A self governing island country. But look at how beautiful it is. Like, this is like one of the most beautiful places I've ever.

[A]

Are you allowed to just like.

[B]

I don't know. Well, I imagine airport vibes are not big on a tiny little. Like what, what is the size of this place? It's like, what's the land area? 96% Christians. The Christians went tell you that much for free.

[A]

The Christians are there. How far is it?

[B]

Okay, so it's 261 square kilometers.

[A]

Say that again. 261 square kilometers. Yeah, like if you're looking at a map, you can't see it. That's how small it is. Just so if everyone's curious, like if you're looking at a zoomed out map that just looks like a dot in the middle of the ocean.

[B]

So it's smaller than New York City. Like New York City is. New York City is 1200 square kilometers.

[A]

It's kind of close ish to Fiji. Like I don't know how far. It's probably like 1/10 the size of Fiji.

[B]

So I, I've been to Fiji. Beautiful country as well. Beautiful, beautiful country.

[A]

I gotta go to Fiji, man.

[B]

But yeah, so, so if you look at New York, New York is, is like 1200 square kilometers and it's bigger than, than this country. Niu was.

[A]

This was Niu on that fewest seniors or most children?

[B]

Well, I'll have to look. It was on most children. Yeah. That's why I hear it was right at 50%, but it's only a thousand. So there's literally only 2,000 people that live there. So that's kind of easy for it to skew. Like, you know, it's not like, that's not a huge like maybe real estate, but you look at places like Nigeria, Ethiopia, where there's already huge markets. Like there's no way that those economies can't grow.

[A]

Right?

[B]

I mean, unless they really mess it up from a governance perspective, which, you know, there are issues in that, that in, in Africa especially. I think there's a lot of challenges in that regard for sure. But yeah, I think.

[A]

No, I. You're right. I agree with you. I think it's like you said, with that young of a population, I think it's. Unless like you said, it's an absolute mishandle of governing policies that it'd be inevitable for those, those countries to grow economically a little. Anyways. For sure. Cool.

[B]

Anywhere else here that stands out? I lost the. They have a. I just want.

[A]

We can, we can turn this into a travel agency podcast, real estate and travel without Borders if you want to check out. We just bring up really cool spots that we find on Google Maps, like NIU if you want to book a flight. We're not sure if you should invest there, but you can absolutely travel there. Actually, I don't even know if you can travel there to be honest. But it looks super cool.

[B]

Yeah, it's probably a pretty tough place to get to. It looks beautiful, tell you that much.

[A]

Thick beaches.

[B]

Okay, what do you want to talk about? Like maybe the, the other contrast to add in here is this other one. Worst performing economies of 2025. Because a lot of them appear on similar lists. And this is where it becomes a challenge. Right. Are the economics bad enough that the, you know, like that there isn't actually an investment thesis to be made out of this because. Just because the population is so good.

[A]

Right.

[B]

Is there still growth potential there? Well, maybe not if the GDP is not growing. Right.

[A]

That's kind of why I wanted to bring this into this, this episode is because I think a lot of our listeners are curious about investing. And in the past we have made mention that a lot of economies with a higher replacement rate or a younger demographic could potentially be like one indicator of a potentially decent investment. Obviously it's not the only indicator you're looking at or like, you know, analytic you're looking at when you want to invest somewhere. But it's definitely something that could be a positive. But when we were looking at this this morning, I mean, I'm just kidding. When we were studying this for hours last week. I'm just kidding. But when we were looking at this this morning, it's like a lot of the, the. The pro. The. The places the countries that were on these fewest seniors and highest children which would be likely an indicator of a decent investment are also on this worst performing economies of 2025. So it's kind of confusing. So I wanted to kind of like get yours.

[B]

Yeah. It just goes to. To show that Population, like, or proper demographics alone won't grow your economy. Right. Like, you have to also have a good economy. And that's, you know, comes from things like manufacturing, research and development. Like, you know, why is the US so productive on a per capita basis? Well, because they spend a lot of money on technology, on advancing the output of a worker. They spend money on machinery and equipment. And, you know, this is one of the big issues with Canada. And a lot of European countries have gone through this as well. We had like so much money pushed into residential investment, you know, houses, renovating houses, and our whole economy, especially in Canada, like you have basically real realtors, contractors, mortgage brokers, the banks that are lending the money. And that's not necessarily a really good basis for an economy. So if you look at like GDP per capita, right. A lot of these countries, they're going to really suffer on a GDP per capita basis because they have such high populations, but they're seeing falling GDP growth. This is based on the IMF's forecasted GDP growth from April 2025. And this is for their, their 2025 GDP growth. South Sudan is expected to contract by 4.31%. And right up here. Yeah, go ahead. No, no, go right up with that. You have Equatorial Guinea, Venezuela, all over 4% GDP contraction. Then you've got. We go over to the Middle east. Now you're in the 1% range, 1.5% Iraq and Yemen, 1% Haiti or 80 basis points. Puerto Rico.

[A]

Dude, that's a sick way to put that. Basis points.

[B]

Yeah, you kind of have to. Well, it's so. It's so hard to like explain percentages as like 0.8%. Right.

[A]

I thought you were going to hit me with a preto Puerto Rico and then the 80 basis points, but it's okay, I'll take it.

[B]

Then you've got basically everybody else who's still kind of like falling slightly below zero. Sudan, Botswana, Austria. Now you kind of get into your western world. Austria, Mexico, Germany expected to fall between 0 and 50 basis points. And then you've got the lowest growth economies on. And this is probably pre war, so that's going to present further headwinds, I would imagine. Lee up only 0.44%. Right. So this is. Again, let's go back to things that we've discussed on the show. We've. We've been getting pumped up on Italian real estate, right? Like just, just jacked up on this stuff. But the reality is you're buying real estate in a country that is only going to grow by 44 basis points in 2025, which is, you know, it's whatever. But it's not really a huge bull case for those values to go up per se.

[A]

Right. Green. It's kind of interesting, like the, the worst. So starting at South Sudan, I was kind of doing a little bit of research here and it seems like the, the world's worst performing economies in 2025, most of the top ones, there's a lot of like civil conflict, political conflict, maybe like single source of, of, of like income. You know, like South Sudan, they had the oil pipeline shut ins and tons of civil conflict. They have a single pipeline that, that essentially decides whether the entire economy grows or implodes. And Equatorial guinea, they have like aging oil field and like no diversification. 60% of, how do you say that? Equatorial Guinea. 60% of their GDP is crude oil, which is kind of crazy. Venezuela, hyperinflation right now. I think they're still dealing with high inflation levels. Let's see here. Iraq, you still have like your, your you know, post war spillovers. Yemen, they say they have ongoing civil war, no growth. Haiti, political issues. Yeah. Like those top places are all seem to be like political conflict, which is kind of interesting.

[B]

Yeah, super interesting. I would say like those things stand in the way of growing an economy. Right. Like if people are busy doing civil war, that's not going to grow the economy. Right. If people are busy doing war, defending the country or whatever, it's not going to grow the economy. War if you're the aggressor, I think seems to grow the economy. Like you'll see a lot of like, you know, there was always that like idea of like the military industrial complex in the US but in a lot of these places it's not, it's not bullish.

[A]

Right?

[B]

Yeah. And I think obviously like if you're buying real estate assets, like, you know, you probably don't want places where you're, they're going to burn your houses down, blow them up and stuff like that either.

[A]

I wonder if like does the, the tariffs play a role in this over the next little bit? I know tariffs a big buzzword right now, but are the tariffs going to play like. Not so much. Another like for example, in like Germany and Europe, there's a lot of turbulence around the tariffs right now in the U.S. right. Is that going to slow this down or change this in the future, you think?

[B]

I think that countries that are impacted by it probably, yeah. I think global trade's been disrupted massively, period. But the big Issue, like, and when we were talking to, you know, our expert on the show from African real estate, like most of the things that they produce is for the domestic economy. Like, they're not really big trading economies, right? They're not, they're not trading a ton. So like if they're producing agriculture, it's for people, other people in maybe Africa to consume. Right. Maize or whatever it is. But a lot of it is just like they're really just trying to sustain themselves. They're not like trying to grow the economy to the point where they're becoming an expert producer in microchips or maize that they're exporting to, you know, the US or whatever. So what's maize? Maize was the crop that he was saying like that they grow in, in Malawi when we were doing that. Yeah, yeah. It's like it's a grain of, of sorts, I believe. Yeah.

[A]

I think to maybe just to, to, to wrap this episode up. The, the last point was the. Or the last chart I wanted to kind of go over was the, the highest share of international migrants. Just to bring this full circle for everybody, because what we talked about was, was pretty bang on. Do you have that chart there? I can, I can send it to you, but it's basically showing the top 20 countries with the highest proportion of international migrants.

[B]

Yeah, I can pull it up.

[A]

Which it's like we talked about. I think the top two, where to go here, the top two are Qatar and the UAE. Qatar is 76.7% which is.

[B]

Explains how they double their population in 15 years.

[A]

Right.

[B]

It is interesting because, yeah, I mean you've got Luxembourg, Lichtenstein, Monaco on here. Monaco, obviously a lot of people, like rich people going there. Saudi Arabia, 40%, Kuwait, almost 70%. 63 point or 67.3%. So it's funny, right, because in the, in the Western world, like, I mean Switzerland, 31.1%. Right. But in, in the Western world, like you get, you're seeing like videos of people posting from like Italy, you know, that, that it's been like, there's, oh, there's so much immigration. You know, in Canada you're seeing people posting so much immigration. Even the U.S. oh, so much immigration. Right. Like these are becoming big themes. Yet a lot of these countries are doing just fine running their economies on massive amounts of immigration as a percentage of total population. So it, it is, it leaves, it's a big question mark from my perspective. It's like, what, what, like what are, what are, what's happening that's wrong in the western world. And maybe it's because a lot of these places are. Are attracting higher quality, higher net worth people or they're already too big of populations. Like Canada's already 40 million U. S is 300 million. So like you can only attract. There's Nothing. There's not 150 million millionaires that you can attract your country out there. Right. Whereas so some of these, you know, smaller countries, it's easier for them to. To kind of grow in that way. But it is fascinating. Definitely an interesting. I'd love. I'd love to see this on a bar chart, actually. Oh, they have it here. App java here. I'll just whip up a bar chart real quick.

[A]

Dude, whip up a bar chart, dude.

[B]

I'm gonna.

[A]

You can just do it like that.

[B]

I don't just pay walled me. Give me a sec.

[A]

Oh the. God. You don't have an account here, man.

[B]

I do for sure.

[A]

I thought for sure he'd have one. I think honestly, Monaco kind of shocked me because I think it's a bit different than the UAE And Qatar. But I think that's more of like a. A person people going.

[B]

But they're small. Right. Like those things are all low base. That's the thing.

[A]

Right.

[B]

Let me see what I can. Where I can do this. I'll do it on.

[A]

Yeah. Number four was Lichtenstein.

[B]

Lichtenstein.

[A]

Lichtenstein. That's a thick handle. Kuwait wasn't. What the guy that came on our show. He was. And he was doing real estate in Kuwait. Was he not your buddy?

[B]

Who's that?

[A]

The African guy?

[B]

No, I don't think so. No. Malawi, Nigeria. I don't think he was doing anything in Kuwait.

[A]

Singapore is up here. Jordan's up here.

[B]

Histogram. Sorry, I'm trying to make a bar.

[A]

Chart here, but it's not going well.

[B]

Oh, I got it. We're good. It just took me a bit.

[A]

How do you make it a bar chart? You're just like, look at this guy, man. This guy just has a computer. So like, there we go.

[B]

Okay. Like, look at that. Like, look at Qatar as a percentage of. Of total. Like Canada's not even on the top of this list here in the US Either. Which is crazy. US Is right there. Yeah. So the US is. And then where. Where else are we? I mean, who else would be here? Italy is what, 10%, 11% total population.

[A]

It is. It is funny because it's like my. My Instagram and TikTok and Twitter are filled with people posting videos about immigration issues across Europe right now and Canada.

[B]

Yeah, same. Maybe our, our algorithms are inflammation, inflammatory.

[A]

But I also think it has to do with, like, the immigration from different countries and like, where the people are going from certain countries, different spots. Like, I don't know. I don't know. It'd be interesting to, to find out. Here, type in into your cal. Your magical calculator there. See, like, can we pull up? I'm kidding, but can we pull up eventually? Like, where are these immigrants coming from?

[B]

Some countries you can, some you can't. But yeah, I mean, I, I think that that is, that is like, that's a big reason why I think people start like, making the videos and posting them and taking like. And kind of getting inflammatory about it because they feel like it is too high of a concentration coming from like, a certain place. Right. And you're in Europe, like, you're hearing. And this is where. This is how like, immigration policy ends up, like, becoming a problem with, like, develops, like, racial undertones and all of this other stuff. Right? Because people are making it about, oh, it's this country invading this country. It's like. I mean, this chart's actually fascinating to me, but I think if you start seeing more, more like diversity of where the people are coming from, then it's like less noticeable. Right, that, right the. That the country is primarily immigrants.

[A]

Yeah, that's what I mean.

[B]

I can't, I still can't find Canada on it, but Canada is in the data set.

[A]

Interesting. We'll just Pull it.

[B]

Canada's 22%.

[A]

22%. Where'd you see that? Oh, it's there. Oh, I see, I see.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Is it 27th?

[B]

Yeah, 27th on the list.

[A]

Okay, 2%. 22%, yeah. 22% share of international migrants and total population. So, yeah, like, Qatar is ahead of Canada. Uae, Monaco, Lichtenstein, Kuwait, Andorra, Bahrain, Luxembourg, Singapore, Jordan, Omran, Saudi Arabia, Malta, Switzerland, Austria, Australia, Palau, New Zealand, Brunei, Austria, Iceland, Lebanon, Ireland, Israel, and then Canada. Interesting.

[B]

It is crazy. Totally. I think the issue is that my axis wasn't big enough, so that it was. It was getting rid of some of these things. But like UK here you've got at, oh, 17%. So Canada should be above what's the US Canada should be right here between Israel and Sweden. There we go. Now we got them all on here.

[A]

The old access wasn't big enough.

[B]

Still not. Canada's still not showing up.

[A]

Recalculate it.

[B]

Oh, I don't know why it's not there. Weird.

[A]

But we know it's there anyway. Interesting. Cool. No, that was cool. It's interesting because in the past we've, we, we've talked about younger generations being a positive and something to look at in terms of real estate investing globally and today we kind of flip that script. No, completely. Again, like I always say in this podcast, it's like all we're doing is giving you the tools to just make you a better investor, make you aware of what's happening globally in different economies so that you can have a better understanding of how to better serve your clients in whatever community or economy that you're currently in. I think being having this, this information, this global information makes you such a better educated realtor. And for the investors listening that aren't realtors just having more tools in the tool belt really.

[B]

Thanks for tuning in and I don't know what we're chatting about next time, but we'll see you soon.

[A]

See you soon.