Population prediction - A challenge to imagine a new Ireland

AT the moment it’s hard to imagine what Ireland might be like in 50 months’ time.

Will we have defaulted? Who will be in Government? What kind of tax hikes or pay cuts will we have endured? Will we be full members of the eurozone? Who will be sending out the invitations to the Áras an Uachtaráin summer garden party? Will Seán O’Brien make the 2015 World Cup in England? Will the east coast population’s appetite for water have drained the Shannon?

Even if you cut that timeframe back to 50 days, it’s not that easy to be certain about many of those questions but this week the EU statistics agency Eurostat asked us to look half a century into the future.