Population forecasting and dynamic games against nature

The paper proposes a new approach to building forecasts of population dynamics using the example of countries in the West African region. Population dynamics are described using discrete equations with variable parameters of a stochastic nature and under the assumption that there are no probability distributions of the values of these parameters. The forecasting process is modeled by a dynamic game against nature. Test examples of the application of the developed forecasting methods in the study of statistics of past periods and the results of retrospective analysis are given. Forecasts of population dynamics after 2020 were constructed for Senegal and Mali.