Botswana’s socio-economic development aspirations as spelt out in its current long-term development strategy, Vision 2036, is to graduate from being an upper-middle-income country (UMIC) to a high-income country (HIC) with prosperity for all. Demographic change has implications for the realisation of these ambitions. This study set out to analyse the population dynamics and age-structure changes in Botswana in the medium to long term and the implications these will have on the ability of the country to maximise its Demographic Dividend (DD). The Demographic Dividend refers to the temporary economic benefit that can arise from a significant increase in the ratio of working-age adults relative to young dependents that results from fertility decline – if this change is
accompanied by sustained investments in education and skills development, health, job creation and good governance. The DD paradigm offers a framework that is congruent with the needs of Botswana’s long-term development aspirations as well as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) agenda.
