Is the world ready for massive demographic change?

We need to plan now for the ageing

by Shannon Roberts

For the first time in history, by the year 2050 people over 60 will outnumber children under the age of 15. Is the world ready for this massive demographic change? A recently released United Nations report suggests not.

The global study ranks the social and economic well-being of the elderly in 91 countries and is the first time such a study has been undertaken.

Many advocates for the elderly feel that people simply don’t recognise that an ageing population is such a pressing issue, and hence adequate data is not collected. This study, created in partnership by elder advocacy group HelpAge International and the United Nations Population Fund, aims to remedy that.

The findings show that ageing is indeed an issue everywhere in the world and that overall the ageing population is not well provided for. To create what they have called the “Global AgeWatch Index 2013” researchers used 13 different indicators, including income and employment, health provision, education, and environment. Based on these indicators, the elderly in Sweden came off best and the elderly in Afghanistan the worst.

Perhaps surprisingly, the report shows that the fastest ageing countries are developing ones, such as Jordan, Laos, Mongolia, Nicaragua and Vietnam, where the number of older people will more than triple by 2050. It is therefore concerning that every one of those countries ranked in the bottom half of the index.

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