October 2025

Europe’s aging burden far less than US or China

Graying Europe has long been considered an outlier in global demographics – but the rising cost to its governments in terms of bills for pensions and health care are more manageable than assumed and less than in rival economies in the United States and China. In a detailed report on the rising cost to the public purse from Europe's aging population, Brussels-based think Breugel this week outlined the trajectory through 2070 using the latest country-by-country data from the European Commission. Familiar...

Bad Sleep Makes Your Brain Age Faster, Study Finds

People who struggle with poor sleep tend to have brains that look older than their actual age, according to an extensive brain imaging study conducted by Karolinska Institutet and published in eBioMedicine. The researchers suggest that increased inflammation in the body could help explain this connection. Although poor sleep has long been associated with dementia, scientists still debate whether unhealthy sleep patterns contribute to cognitive decline or if they are early signs of the disease. In this new investigation, the Karolinska...

The impacts of different dietary restriction regimens on aging and longevity: from yeast to humans

By Tsui-Ting Ching & Ao-Lin Hsu Dietary restriction (DR) refers to a broad set of interventions that limit the intake of specific nutrients or overall food consumption, either in quantity or timing, without causing malnutrition. DR has long been considered the most robust intervention for increasing healthspan and lifespan. This includes, not exhaustively, caloric restriction (CR), protein restriction (PR), amino acid restriction (AAR), intermittent fasting (IF), and time-restricted fasting (TRF), each with overlapping but distinct metabolic and physiological effects. This...

The U.S.-Born labor force will shrink over the next decade

By Josh Bivens It is often underrecognized how much population aging is currently reducing the growth rate of the U.S. labor force and will continue to pull it down in coming decades. The share of the population that is over the age of 65 (when labor force participation tends to take a steep fall on average) is rising rapidly. This share was 12.4% in 2007, 17.9% in 2024, and will hit 21.2% by 2035 (CBO 2025b). A recent EPI report...

A systematic review and meta-analysis of air pollution and increased risk of frailty

By Zahra Jafari, Melissa Andrew & Kenneth Rockwood Background Environmental air pollution is increasingly recognised as a potential contributor to frailty. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to synthesise existing evidence on the associations between environmental air pollution and frailty in middle-aged and older adults, providing insights into the impact of air pollution on public health. Methods The systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Statement 2020. Four electronic databases were searched without...

Part-Time Penalties and Heterogeneous Retirement Decisions

By Kanta Ogawa Older male workers exhibit diverse retirement behaviors across occupations and respond differently to policy changes, influenced significantly by the part-time penalty—wage reduction faced by part-time workers compared to their full-time counterparts. Many older individuals reduce their working hours, and in occupations with high part-time penalties, they tend to retire earlier, as observed in data from Japan and the United States. This study develops a general equilibrium model that incorporates occupational choices, endogenous labor supply, highlighting that the...

Population Aging in ASEAN+3: But is 60 the New 40?

By Aruhan Rui Shi & Hongyan Zhao Population aging is becoming a significant concern, particularly as its pace accelerates, especially in emerging market economies. However, labeling all individuals aged 65 and above as elderly can be misleading and inaccurate when life expectancy is increasing. Therefore, using the prospective old-age dependency ratio to define what is elderly would allow for more precise measurements and facilitate research into the impact of aging on economic growth. Our findings suggest that while a negative...

Frailty in ageing populations worsened by air pollution, global review finds

Air pollution increases the likelihood of people becoming frail in middle and old age, according to an international review of studies. People are living longer and, while this is often painted as a challenge to healthcare systems, it is also something to celebrate. There are many opportunities to increase the quality of life in old age, maximise independence and minimise the amount time spent being ill. Dr Zahra Jafari, from Dalhousie University and coauthor of the review, said: “Frailty is a critical health outcome...

Healthy ageing: Are we on track?

The world is ageing at an unprecedented pace. The change in global demography caused by population ageing has been a notable phenomenon in recent times. The global population of people aged 60 and above is expected to increase from 1.1 billion in 2023 to 1.4 billion in 2030. Moreover, the pace of population ageing has been significantly faster than in the past, with an estimated increase in the proportion of older people in the global population from 12% to 22% between 2015 and 2050. Between 1974...

September 2025

Power Of Friendship Can Slow Down Ageing, Study Finds

Friendships that have survived the odds and persevered for years can help slow down biological ageing, a new study has found. Such relationships and engagement may 'reset' the body's internal clocks to lower the biological age, the research published in the journal Brain, Behavior & Immunity - Health, highlighted. Drawing on data from 2117 adults who participated in a study called the Midlife in the United States, researchers noted that people with greater "cumulative social advantage" showed slower rates of biological...