Population, Living Standards and Well-Being Since 1989

This chapter looks at the two main components of human capital: a health component that affects the availability of raw labor and also labor affects effectivity, and an education/training component. It reviews the main demographic tendencies of in post-communist countries, and discusses how the population is characterized by differential standards of living during and after the transition away from state socialism. The gradual growth of population slowed down and halted in the 1980s and the population share of Eastern European countries in Europe without the USSR remained basically unchanged after 1990. By 1990 all European countries were below the replacement level of total fertility rate (TFR), signifying the ageing of population and predicting a reduction in future population. The measurable indicators of well-being and living standards reflect a slow convergence to Western Europe after the transition crisis. However, well-being is just imperfectly approximated by quantitative measures.