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The key to the future of any country in the modern world lies in the knowledge, skills and talent of its population. This gives a special importance to education through which human capital is created as an important component of national wealth. Different methods of measuring human capital are found in literature. There is a well-known division into monetary and non-monetary methods, with the latter being specifically addressed in the article. Education plays an important role in achieving sustainable development. Through education, knowledge about sustainable development is acquired while human resources that are capable and willing to achieve this development are created. Education, just like sustainable development, has a long-time perspective. In both cases, the interests of the future are respected when making decisions in the present. The impact of education on sustainable development is manifested through all three of its dimensions – economic, social and environmental. The key role of education for achieving sustainable development has been globally recognized and embedded in relevant United Nations documents, including a new global development agenda by 2030, focusing on the Sustainable Development Goals, of which Objective 4 explicitly refers to education. The European Union also pays considerable attention to education for the future in the context of the commitment of its members to achieve sustainable development. Serbia, at least declaratively, follows it, given the orientation of the country to join this regional integration. The future of education is under the strong influence of global mega trends, especially the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which strongly influences the world of work and the necessary knowledge and skills. During the earlier industrial revolutions, it took several decades to build appropriate education and training systems, but there is no time for that now. Changes must be anticipated, and reactions should be quick. The quality of educational systems of countries around the world and their preparedness for the challenges of the new age can be evaluated on the basis of the results of the Program for International Student Assessment – PISA, the most important research in the field of education, which, under the auspices of the OECD, tests the knowledge and skills of fifteen-year-olds, and relying on the composite indicator introduced by the World Economic Forum – Global Human Capital Index (GHCI). The results for Serbia are generally discouraging, but in some segments, they point to the country’s hidden potentials that should be activated. Education represents the development opportunity of Serbia at the threshold of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. As a small and economically country, Serbia should not remain at the margin of events, in the role of a passive observer. On the contrary, through adapting its education system to the demands of time by adequate financial and institutional support, thus improving human capital of the people, Serbia can find its place in a changing labor market and create preconditions for dynamic and sustainable economic development.

The research presented in this paper is dealing with mortality and its impact on the natural increase, i.e. population dynamics in Serbia at the beginning of the 21st century. The aim is to draw attention to the potential of mortality as a natural component of changes in population when it comes to the possibility of mitigating the negative population trends. This paper will analyse changes in the age patterns of mortality of Serbian population from the mid 20th century, in order to point to the lack of progress in reducing age-specific mortality. The comparison with countries with low mortality rates (Slovenia and Sweden) will highlight the potential space for further mortality reduction in Serbia. The effect of a hypothetical fall of mortality by age on the level of natural increase will be measured on the basis of population projections for the period of half a century.

Proportional to the total population, Serbia was the country with the highest number of casualties in the First World War. According to the first estimates presented at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, total Serbian casualties were 1,250,000, over 400,000 of which were military losses while the rest were civilian deaths. Besides direct losses, which include casualties in war events and deaths resulting from military operations, the Serbian population also suffered significant indirect losses originating from the reduced number of births during the war and postwar years, increased death rate after the war as a consequence of war events, and more intensive emigration. The paper analyses some of the most-quoted estimates of demographic losses (the Paris Peace Conference, Đurić, Notestein et al.), which differ in the methodology applied, the territory covered, and the obtained results. Moreover, the paper specifies the long-term demographic consequences of the First World War, primarily on the population size of Serbia and its age and gender structure. Generations that suffered the biggest losses and those whose sex structure was disrupted the most are indicated. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 179076: The political identity of Serbia in the local and global context i br. 47006: Investigation of demographic phenomena in the function of public policies in Serbia]

The influence of demographic variables on household consumption level and structure is understood but insufficiently studied in Serbia. This paper analyzes the connection between age as a demographic variable, and the size and structure of household consumption as economic phenomena. We discuss the research results, trying to explain the intensity and direction of the shown connection. The economic variables are usually set as determinants of demographic processes, but we set age as an independent demographic variable shaping household consumption without ignoring the household income level. It seems that the age structure of a household, particularly the age of the household head, has a significant influence on consumption structure.

This paper analyzes the connection between life expectancy according to sex and numerous factors on which its level depends on. Statistical analysis understood application of correlation and regression analysis for determining the connection strength of life expectancy and researched factors separately and then all factors together, as well as separately groups of health-medical and socio-economic factors. The analysis was carried out for a group of developed countries, medium developed, mixed group and Yugoslavia (now SCG) on available data for the second half of the 20th century. Analysis results for Yugoslavia showed that the greatest influence on life expectancy of all factors together were setting aside funds for social security (p

This study analyzes the level and structure of old age population mortality in Yugoslavia with an aim to determine the intensity of realized changes and to provide an answer to how much they are significant and to approach the positive trends noted in developed countries in the latest period. Although it was insufficiently represented in the demographic analysis, the analysis of mortality in old people is gaining importance in the world. Apart from the reasons which result from the increase in the number of old people and thus their greater participation in the total number of deceased, enviable results have been achieved in decreasing old age mortality, which are more and more in focus of interest. While earlier research reported on the dominant influence of the decrease of younger age mortality to the increase of the expectation of life at birth, recent analysis precisely confirm the importance of decreasing mortality in old people. In mortality conditions from 1997/98, an additional 13.4 years of life in average is expected for men in Yugoslavia, and 15.2 for women. During more than five decades, the anticipated life expectancy for people over the age of 65 increased for only 1.2 years for men and 1.9 years for women. Out of that, the greatest increase was realized in the period 1950/51 - 1960/61 in both sexes. A small decrease in the average life expectancy was marked with men in the period 1960/61 - 1970/71, and with women in the latest period. Otherwise, all up to the eighties, the annual rate of increase was considerably lower than the rate of increase for zero year. It was only in the period 1980/81-1990/91 that faster growth had an anticipated life expectancy for the 65 years old. However, during the nineties unfavorable changes continued with the older, especially, female population. When comparing the values of the average life expectancy for people over 65 in Yugoslavia with corresponding values in developed countries, the lagging in average amounted to about 3 years for the male and about 5 years for the female population. In Japan in 1998 it amounted to 17.1 years, namely 22.0 years respectively. However, it is interesting that all up to the seventies these indexes were almost at the same level in our country and Japan, and only after this period the differences appeared as a consequence of putting an end to the positive tendencies in differential mortality by age, even in the increase rate with the older population in Yugoslavia. On the other hand, the anticipated life expectancy for the age of 65 (for both sexes) was increased by 40%, in Japan from 1970 to 1998, in contrast to an increase of 9% for 0 age. In the same period in Yugoslavia, although there was a considerably lower increase percentage, it was still more significant with newborns (above 6% for both sexes), than with population older than 65 (under 5%). Hence, such an inclination and intensity of changes resulted, in relation to Japan, in a relatively greater lagging with people aged 65 than with 0 age. The anticipated life expectancy for people aged 85 and over, in the whole observed period, increased only by 8% with the male population and 10% with the female population of Yugoslavia. Its present level is the result of small changes in the mortality rates of the oldest population. In average, people aged 85 + will live another 4.2, namely 4.4 years respectively under the assumed mortality from 1997/98. At the same time the Japanese men are expected to live another 5.4, and Japanese women another 7.2 years. Therefore, middle aged and old population in Yugoslavia has had unfavorable mortality tendencies in relation to the young population, more distinct beginning from the seventies, and especially with men. The nineties were again unfavorable for the old population, this time especially for the female population, where a slight decrease of this rate was marked. Having in mind the changes and achieved level of anticipated life expectancy in developed countries, it can be said that the deviations in relation to the rates in our country are significant, relatively greater with the older population. For this reason, mortality reduction of the old age population is a chance for an increase in the life span, although all possibilities in our country, for the decrease of mortality with the young as well, especially newborns, have not been exploited. In that sense, it seems that the greatest importance would be control of cardiovascular illnesses and risk factors regarding individual behavior.