The World is Getting Older

Population aging is starting to become more commonplace in the world. The UN states that as of 2021, 1 in 10 people are aged 65 or above, but by 2050, it is expected to become 1 in 6 people. In terms of raw numbers, that means an increase from 761 million people over the age of 65 to 1.6 billion. Such a monumental demographic shift will be unprecedented in human history and comes with similarly unprecedented implications.

Where is population aging hitting hardest?

Currently, the consequences of population are mainly being seen in countries in Western Europe (particularly Italy, Germany, and Finland) and East Asia (especially in Japan, South Korea and China). In many of these countries, this is occurring while births fall, often below the replacement rate, causing the population to shrink. As a result, their economies have stagnated or at least slowed when compared to times of population boom. The main concern is not just the blossoming elderly population, but the lack of new births to sustain a proportionate young population, meaning fewer people to support their economies and tax base, with economically catastrophic implications.

Elder care in Japan is currently facing issues as there are less younger aged people to take care of the elderly as the country ages. (Financial Times)

Aging and COVID-19

While COVID-19 has no direct effect on aging, it still impacts other factors that make aging more difficult like body functions and physical health. The pandemic also placed a massive strain on health resources and urgent care, especially for the elderly. As a result, elderly people received less quality care. Even now, with the worst of the pandemic past, many healthcare facilities are chronically understaffed, meaning that services like elderly and hospice care are much more difficult to access.

The government response

To address population aging, affected countries are responding with economic measures. In the UK, taxes are being raised for non-elderly people to support the high pension and costs for the elderly. In Japan, the retirement age is being raised, and the elderly are being given the option to continue working if they choose to. These examples demonstrate the catastrophic effects that aging has on a country's economy and that many of these measures might seem more like short-term solutions or fixes to weather the eventual high costs.

As population aging becomes increasingly problematic, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) recommends strong institutional changes as well as infrastructure changes. This includes changes to family care and child care, giving parents more time off to raise families to reduce one of the major barriers to having children for middle-aged people. The IMF recommends building infrastructure that is more geared toward the elderly and easier to use/navigate.

One historical example of such infrastructure change is the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) which gives more human infrastructure to people with disabilities which can often include the elderly, so having things like wheelchair ramps as an alternative to stairs would make it a lot easier for the elderly across the world. Other infrastructure changes could be made to the environment people live in. This includes having clean air and buildings that use far less hazardous chemicals, improving health.

The IMF also recommends limiting barriers to immigration, mainly because the population aging is heavily imbalanced. Countries receiving large numbers of immigrants are often the ones seeing population aging, while countries with booming populations tend to see large outflows. However, growing anti-immigrant sentiment complicates the use of immigration to balance the population.

Everyone getting older is an inevitable fact, but the rate at which it is happening and the simultaneous shrinkage of younger age groups is the main concern for demographers and economists. As population aging starts to create a drag on healthcare and economic performance in developed countries while developing countries see population booms, concerns have been raised over a massive global imbalance demographically and economically. With fewer working-age adults, resources could be strained. As the world gets older, it's becoming more and more clear that countries everywhere will have to adapt and innovate in response.