Demographic Contraction and Sustainability: Economic Stress, Intergenerational Justice, and Social Change Within Societies in Stage 5 of the Demographic Transition Model

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce this Challenges—Journal of Planetary Health Special Issue: “Demographic Contraction and Sustainability: Economic Stress, Intergenerational Justice, and Social Change Within Societies in Stage 5 of the Demographic Transition Model.”

A growing number of nations are entering Stage 5 of the Demographic Transition Model, characterized by below-replacement fertility, a rapidly aging population, and consequently, population decline. While public discourse often frames these trends as economic crises or labor market challenges, their implications extend far beyond workforce dynamics.

From a planetary health perspective, Stage 5 transitions signal a profound structural shift in how societies organize production, consumption, and labor and reveal profound differences in how member generations view their environmental rights and responsibilities. Countries experiencing demographic contraction are among the highest per-capita consumers of material and energetic resources. As population growth stabilizes or reverses, longstanding growth-dependent economic models, pension systems, urban infrastructures, and care arrangements face systemic stress. Thus, these stresses have the potential to effect longer-term changes in culture and society.

This Special Issue invites interdisciplinary scholarship examining how demographic contraction intersects with ecological sustainability, economic resilience, governance systems, cultural norms, and models of well-being.

We encourage planetary health framing:

Planetary health has emphasized the need to examine “our total world” — the political, economic, social, and ecological systems that shape human and environmental flourishing. Demographic contraction may reduce aggregate environmental pressures in some contexts, yet aging populations may also alter consumption patterns, infrastructure demands, health expenditure, and migration dynamics in ways that carry complex ecological implications. Understanding these shifts is essential for designing equitable and sustainable pathways in the Anthropocene.

Scope and Themes:

We welcome submissions addressing, but not limited to:

• Intergenerational equity and fiscal sustainability
• Demographic aging, social and environmental implications
• Growth-dependent economic systems in a post-growth demographic context
• Migration as demographic adaptation and its global justice implications
• Urban transformation in shrinking cities
• Rural depopulation and land-use change
• Consumption patterns across the life course
• Care economies and ecological sustainability
• Gender equity and reproductive decision-making
• Cultural narratives of pro-natalism and societal resilience
• Governance innovations in aging democracies
• Comparative case studies of Stage 5 societies
• Modeling ecological impacts of demographic contraction.

Dr. Kevin M. Kelly
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the Special Issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Challenges is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.