July 2025

Pensions in Spain: A Reform that Backfires

By Julián Díaz Saavedra & Javier Díaz-Giménez After the pension policy reversal that took place at the end of the past decade, the Spanish government approved a pack of new parametric changes to its public pension system, to cope with the present and future Spanish pension system imbalance. To study these changes, we use a large-scale overlapping generations model calibrated to the Spanish Economy, and show that this pension reform backfires. This is because these changes bring no significant variation...

HSBC highlights trends shaping longevity economy, reveals factors driving wealth creation

HSBC hosted a Future Wealth Conference at The Rosewood Hong Kong earlier this month, bringing together industry leaders, financial experts and high-net-worth individuals to explore the forces reshaping wealth in an era of rapid change. The conference was an exclusive event for the bank’s Premier Elite clients. The conference, themed “Unpacking Trends, Unlocking Opportunities”, focused on three critical areas: the opportunities and challenges of extended lifespans, the transformative potential of artificial intelligence (AI), and the shifts seen in consumer behaviour,...

Ranked: The Countries With the Most Seniors (2025-2100P)

The world has entered a demographic transition that it’s never quite contended with before. As fertility rates fall and longevity rises, the share of people aged 65 and over is climbing rapidly. This visualization ranks the nations—having a population of at least one million—with the biggest senior populations today. It also shows how that lineup is set to change by 2100. Data for this visualization is sourced from the UN World Population Prospects, which tracks and projects the share of adults aged...

Developing Retirement Living Standards

By Matt Padley & Claire Shepherd The Retirement Living Standards (RLS), first published in 2019 and funded by the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA), set out what the public agree is needed to retire at two living standards above a minimum standard of living, based on extensive research with members of the public. The research uses the established approach to defining minimum living standards pioneered at CRSP and describes in detail what the public agree single and partnered retirees...

Individuals’ challenges managing pensions through retirement

By Bee Boileau, Jonathan Cribb & Carl Emmerson This report is one of two reports on the management of pension wealth in retirement conducted as part of the Pensions Review, led by the Institute for Fiscal Studies in partnership with the abrdn Financial Fairness Trust. In this report, we examine the decisions that older individuals face as they draw on and manage their private pension wealth through retirement. In particular, we highlight the growing importance of defined contribution (DC) wealth,...

The impact of ageing, socio-economic differences and the evolution of morbidity on future health expenditure – a dynamic microsimulation

By Thomas Horvath, Thomas Leoni, Peter Reschenhofer & Martin Spielauer    Background Population ageing is associated with rising healthcare expenditure. To inform policy and adapt health systems accordingly, a detailed quantitative analysis of the different components of ageing and other factors that influence cost dynamics is needed. Methods We use dynamic microsimulation to project healthcare expenditure in Austria and disentangle the effects of changes in longevity, population age-structure, healthy life years and socio-economic health disparities. By combining price weights for healthcare services with information on healthcare consumption from the...

Global Aging and Growth: Is There a Silver Dividend?

By Donghyun Park & Kwanho Shin Despite concerns about the economic impact of population aging, this study highlights the potential for a 'silver dividend' as longer lifespans extend working lives. We show that the effects of aging on growth are highly nonlinear and concentrated in more advanced, older economies. Labor shortages are often offset by rising labor force participation, particularly in countries with higher life expectancy, stronger human capital, and greater trade openness. Larger governments, measured by consumption, appear to...

The Depopulation Bomb

Natalist panic is rife nowadays. The White House is weighing initiatives to boost the number of births, ranging from a $5,000-per-baby bonus to awarding "National Medals of Motherhood" to mothers with six or more children. In March, the NatalCon gathering in Austin, Texas, declared that we're "living through the greatest population bust in human history." In April, the tech billionaire (and father of 14 children) Elon Musk posted on X: "Low birth rates will end civilization." And yet the world's population continues to grow. 132 million...

China’s New Cash Plan to Tackle Birth Rate Threat

China plans to introduce new nationwide cash incentives for families with newborn babies in an effort to boost the country's declining birth rate and ensure long-term economic growth. Why It Matters China ended its decades-long one-child policy in 2016, but the country's fertility rate continued to decline for seven years, despite a raft of government policies. Officials fear that the demographic shift could have wide-ranging effects on the world's second-largest economy in the years to come. While the fertility rate last year bucked...

Russia launches controversial scheme to boost birth rate, offers money to schoolgirls for having children

Amid a sharp decline in birth rates, Russia has launched a controversial new initiative that offers financial incentives to school and college-going girls to become pregnant and raise children. The program, currently being piloted in select regions, provides over 100,000 rubles (approximately Rs 90,000) to adult schoolgirls who agree to give birth and care for a child. The scheme is part of a broader demographic strategy adopted in March 2025 aimed at reversing Russia’s population decline. It is being implemented...