The demographic foundations that we take for granted – an ever-expanding and youthful population are slipping beneath our feet. As people live longer and fewer children are born, a seismic shift is under way in the age profile of populations: the agequake.

As the baby-boomer bulge moves from “mid-youth” into older age brackets, the old will out-number the young for the first time in human history. Furthermore, as birth rates plummet around the world many countries will face a population a population implosion.

The agequake is bigger than the fate of any single generation. It is truly global phenomenon, embracing the developing countries even more quickly than the West. The old belief that that demographic changes ate slow is wrong – the acceleration of change is astonishing.

Paul Wallace's powerful and readable book is both a global guide and the first full analysis of the massive effects of the boom, bulge and bust of the demographic rollercoaster- and what it means for you money, your life and our world in what is truly “a new age”.

Paul Wallace writes, lectures and broadcasts widely about international economics and the social and economic effects of population ageing and was previously economics editor of The independent. He has made and presented programmes on business and finance and the cultural impact of ageing for the BBC, ITV and Channel Four. After graduating from Cambridge, he was awarded an M Phil at the London School of Economics.