The Baby Kaboom

Talk about a baby boom. If you thought the postwar bulge of births was big in the West, just wait till it goes global. According to a report released Wednesday by the United Nations Population Fund, a higher proportion of the planet is entering its child-bearing years than ever before: One billion young people between the ages of 15 and 24. The most immediate result? "Millions of additional unintended or unwanted pregnancies... tens of thousands of additional maternal deaths, and at least a million more infant and child deaths," says a gloomy U.N.

But once the new boomer generation gets going, the effects may be more positive. Developing nations, where about 90 percent of this growth will take place, get a "demographic bonus" -- that is, there will be more working people than retirees and children combined. As long as the global economy can give them jobs, the neo-boomers mean a windfall in taxes and social security for their home countries. And the ever-older U.S. can only look on in envy.