The Asian Century: In 2025, two-thirds of the world's population will live in Asia. The population of the European Union will account for less than 7 per cent of the world's population with the highest proportion of people over 65 years old in the world (more than 30 percent of the population). The center of gravity of world production will move towards Asia, reaching more than 30 percent of the world GDP, and would surpass that of the EU, estimated at slightly more than 20 percent. In 2030, the middle class (with an income between 4000 and 17,000 dollars a year) could account for 1 billion people, of which 90 percent will be living in developing countries. If recent trends continue, in 2025, the United States and Europe will have lost their scientific and technological supremacy for the benefit of Asia, and India and China could account for 20 percent of the world's R&D.

‘The World in 2025: Rising Asia and Socio-Ecological Transition’, European Commission, Directorate General for Research, Socio-Economic Sciences and Humanities, European Communities, 2009.

‘By nearly doubling its share of global GDP (at market exchange rates) from 27 percent in 2010 to 51 percent by 2050, Asia would regain the dominant global economic position it held some 250 year ago, before the Industrial Revolution. Some have called this possibility the “Asian Century”. … The key policy implication for all Asian countries is that their future competitiveness and well-being will depend heavily on improving the efficiency of natural resource use and winning the global race to a low carbon future … a greater focus on personal satisfaction and harmony with nature, rather than more wealth, will be important for the affluent countries. This requires a dialogue within Asia to understand what can be done to improve well-being and what that implies for the region's growth model’

Asia 2050: Realizing the Asian Century, Asian Development Bank, 2011, Manila.

The global economic power shift from the established advanced economies in North America, Western Europe and Japan will continue over the next 35 years. China is already the world's biggest economy in PPP terms and India has the potential to overtake the US as the world's second largest economy in 2050 in PPP terms. In 2014, the third biggest economy in PPP terms (India) is around 50 per cent largest than the fourth biggest economy (Japan).