Brazil's Future Population: What Will Happen Next?

1) Brazil's current age structure shows many possibilities for Brazil, in both long and short terms.  In the short term (15-20 years), I think Brazil's population will continue to grow.  Currently, 26.2% of Brazil's population is 0-14 years old and 67% of Brazil's population is 15-64 years old.  As you can see, most of Brazil's population consists of teenagers and adults.  These young adults and adults will most likely have children within the next 15-20 years.  Thus, significantly increasing the population and increasing the amount of 0-14 year olds.  At the same time, the older adults will become over 65 years of age and therefore, the groups will even out.  As the overall population increases, it may be that the 0-14 generation today, who will be adults in the longer term, may not have as many children.  Thereby, eventually leading to an overall aging of the population.

2) The increase in population in the short term may have mainly positive outcomes, where as in the long term, it may have negative ones as well.  More people leads to a larger workforce which leads to increased productivity.  However, eventually as Brazil becomes more developed, the continual increase in jobs and new industries may flatten leading to fewer jobs for a large population and unemployment.  In the short term, everything may be good as the growth engine continues in Brazil, but as Brazil gets fully developed, that engine may slow down which could lead to a large population with fewer jobs and ultimately unemployment.  A larger population needs more space.  This may lead to overcrowding in major cities and a higher cost of living.  With a higher cost of living, not everyone will be able to live in the expensive major cities.  One possibility for them, would be to move out to the countryside of Brazil.  In order to build towns and even houses, you have to clear the land which may have a negative effect on the environment if the towns are not built in a sustainable manner.  At the same time, more people need more food so, the increase farming land may also be at the expense of the environment.  Therefore, as the country grows and prospers, the people have to ensure that this growth is down in a sustainable manner where the growing population need are balances with overall environmental protection and conservation.  A bigger population would also use more natural resources and would also need more energy so, the danger is that they would abuse the natural resources and have to determine the best energy sources which may or may not be clean energy sources.  So as the population grows, they have to plan carefully to meet especially the increase energy demands in a clean way, not using more fossil fuels, but rather developing alternative sources of energy such as, hydro, wind, or solar energy.  If they do not plan carefully, the increased population would most likely lead to increased pollution which would lead to further degradation of the environment. 

Source: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2010.html