What does it mean for education that our societies are ageing? Or that the Internet is playing an ever larger role in our lives? Does it matter for schools that populations are increasingly overweight? This book is designed to help policy makers, managers and practitioners in education to think about developments like these and to support long-term strategic thinking in education. It fills an important need: decision makers and practitioners in education often have only anecdotal or local information on the trends shaping education; too often they do not have solid facts in front of them. This volume presents 26 major trends in the context of education, grouped in 9 broad themes. For each trend, there is a two-page spread, containing a short introduction, two figures with accompanying text followed by three key questions about the impact of the trend on the future of education. A dynamic link (StatLink) is provided for each figure, which directs the user to a web page where the corresponding data are available in Excel. The 9 broad themes covered are: Ageing OECD societies Global challenges Towards a new economic landscape The changing world of work and jobs The learning society ICT: the next generation Citizenship and the state Social connections and values Sustainable affluence? TO FIND OUT MORE on the future of education: www.oecd.org/edu/future/sft