The balance of economic power is predicted to shift dramatically over the next 50 years, says the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

The Paris-based OECD says in a new report that fast-growing emerging market economies are expected to account for an ever-increasing share of global output. Divergent long-term growth patterns will lead to radical shifts in the relative size of economies, it says.

By as early as 2016, the U.S. is expected to cede its place as the world’s largest economy to China, the OECD reports; with India’s GDP expected to pass the U.S. over the long term, too. China and India combined will soon surpass the collective economies of the G7, it adds.

At the same time, aging economic heavyweights, such as Japan and the euro area, will gradually lose ground in the global GDP picture to countries with younger populations, such as Indonesia and Brazil, the OECD notes.

The OECD’s report, which uses a new model for projecting growth over the next 50 years, forecasts global economic growth of 3% annually, with sharp differences between the emerging market economies, which are expected to grow at a much faster pace, and the advanced countries, which will likely grow at slower and often declining rates.

“The economic crisis we have been living with for the past five years will eventually be overcome, but the world our children and grandchildren inherit may be starkly different from ours,” said OECD secretary-general, Angel Gurría.

“As the largest and fastest-growing emerging countries fully assume a more prominent place in the global economy, we will face new challenges to ensure a prosperous and sustainable world for all. Education and productivity will be the main drivers of future growth, and should be policy priorities worldwide,” Gurría adds.

Indeed, the report indicates that the shifting balance of long-term global output will lead to corresponding shifts in living standards, with income per capita expected to more than quadruple in the poorest countries by 2060. The increase could even be seven-fold in China and India, it says. The result, will be that the gap that currently exists in living standards between emerging markets and advanced economies will have narrowed by 2060.

Still, large cross-country differences will persist, the OECD cautions. While China will see more than a seven-fold increase in per capita income over the coming 50 years, living standards will still only be 60% of that in the leading countries in 2060, it says. And, India will experience similar growth, but its per capita income will only be about 25% of that in advanced countries.

“None of these forecasts are set in stone,” Gurría said. “We know that bold structural reforms can boost long-term growth and living standards in advanced and emerging-market economies alike.”