Demographics

• By 2050, the world's urban population will have increased by some 72%.
• By 2050 the population of Asia is expected to be 5.2 billion people accounting for roughly half the world's 10-11 billion population at the time.
• Increasingly a disproportionate number of Africans will make up the global working age population.
• While much attention is focused on China's emerging middle class, consumers in upper middle class and affluent households will have the most impact over the next four years.

Cities

• By 2030, the world is projected to have 41 mega-cities with more than 10 million inhabitants each.
• By 2025, more than 70% of Africa's population is expected to be living in cities.
• By 2025, out of the top 600 cities in the world in economic terms, more than one hundred will be in China.
• China will contain eight cities of at least 10 million people in the coming decade.
• China is expected to add close to 300 million more urbanites by 2030.
• Europe has now the opportunity to leverage the smart city as a platform for digital transformation of the economy and the society.

Business

• Logistics service providers offering efficient and effective services on the emerging transport corridors will serve as an enabler for intensified trade between Asia and Europe.
• Europe's transformational agenda for the digital age will see the convergence of Mega Trends across all industries - from green energy to e-health, from smart mobility to sustainable manufacturing and connected industry.
• Electricity generation will become a new small business.
• Facebook's aggressive move into publishing will disrupt many marketing plans and jeopardize the traditional inbound marketing model.
• Nearly 60% of EU internet users now shop online and in ten years’ time 20-25% of all retail spend is expected to be generated online.
• European manufacturing will undergo structural transformations towards sustainable competitiveness.
• 40% of existing jobs worldwide will be lost by 2020 but many new ones will be created in the high-growth industries.

Climate change

• Human-induced climate change will increase storm intensity by between 2 percent and 11 percent by the end of the century.
• An increase of global temperatures of 4°C to 6°C by the end of the century could increase the annual area burned by a factor of two to five.

Technology

• More change will result from advances in technology in the next five years than has occurred over the past 50 years.
• By the end of 2017, 60% of the top 1,000 enterprises in the Asia Pacific will have digital transformation as their core business strategy.
• By 2022, one in every 10 people will be wearing clothes connected to the internet.
• Cash-rich enterprise software companies like Oracle and Microsoft will start to buy up many of the cash-poor data companies.
• Technology will enable virtual versus physical business and operating models.
• IoT will grow to become a $1.7 trillion market by 2020.
• Machine learning technologies will make it possible to discover unknown signals.
• Platforms such as big data, analytics and mobility are expected to become the pillars of smart building evolution in terms of technology, business value and customer satisfaction.
• Information stored in the cloud will shoot up to 40 per cent by 2020.
• Industry 4.0 - 3/4D and additive printing, robots, a circular and sharing economy, reshoring  and the IoT will change manufacturing forever.

Transportation

• Shared transportation, driverless cars and disruptive technology-related solutions will generate new competition.
• The global production of battery EVs will grow from 273,000 in 2015 to 1.3 million in 2022.
• The rise of high-speed rail and people's increasing expectations of airport facilities mean the world will need fewer mega-hub airports.
• Many more mega-growth players will emerge in sectors such as driverless cars.
• Drones will increasingly do many delivery, security and measurement jobs.

• Hydro, wind and geothermal energy could see Africa leapfrogging other continents by developing thousands of small-scale "virtual power stations" that distribute electricity via mini-grids and would not require transmission lines.
• Researchers predict underwater cities, personal drones and mega-skyscrapers all by the year 2116.
• The megatrends of digital transformation, globalization, urbanization, demographic change and climate change will provide growth opportunities.
• Mankind will need to get much better at recycling agricultural inputs and growing food more efficiently.
• Three concepts of urbanization will emerge megacities, mega regions and mega corridors.
• Greater information flows will enable more people to become aware of opportunities for work both nearby and in distant places.
• Some of today's large global managers will become mega-managers.

 DRIVERS

cities·  population · energy · technologies · digital transformation · climate change
Athena's forecast (robot generated from verbatim forecasts)

• Start year: Ongoing
• Likely Tipping point: 2035
• Likely End year: 2100
• Likely Impact $: Trillions
• Likelihood: 90%
• Regions affected: Global
• Most affected sectors: Food, Transport, Construction, Manufacturing, Clothing, Emergency services, Technology, Finance, City halls, Government, Healthcare

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