>Conclusions<p>>The stock of human capital plays an important role in economic growth and prosperity (e.g. Bishop 1989, Toivanen and Väänänen 2013, Aghion et al. 2017). Cognitive scientists studying population trends in measured intelligence have tended to emphasise the role of factors affecting the supply of skills. Our analysis suggests that the mix of skills in a society also evolves in response to the society’s demands and suggests the value of economic reasoning in the study of population trends in measured intelligence.