August 2025
28Aug

Japan and South Korea Task Force To Tackle Birth Rate Crisis

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung have agreed to launch a joint task force to tackle shared issues of concern, including birth rates. Why It Matters More than half of the world's countries now have total fertility rates below the replacement level of 2.1 births per woman needed to sustain a population. Longer lifespans, rising living costs and shifting social attitudes among younger generations have contributed to the decline. South Korea (0.75) and Japan (1.15) have among the...

August 28, 2025
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26Aug

In a Hotter World, Some People Age Faster, Researchers Find

Living through extreme heat waves can accelerate your rate of aging, according to research published Monday. Scientists analyzed 15 years’ worth of health data from nearly 25,000 adults in Taiwan and found that two years of exposure to heat waves could speed up a person’s so-called biological aging by eight to 12 extra days. It may not sound like a lot, but this number builds over time, said Cui Guo, an assistant professor at the University of Hong Kong who led...

August 26, 2025
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26Aug

Aging population pressures China’s pension system.

China's rapidly aging population puts pressure on the pension system that needs to be addressed China, a major developing country with a large population, is undergoing exceptionally rapid demographic aging. The most urgent priority for China's pension finance sector is to tackle aging-related challenges and enhance the sustainability of the pension system, which has transitioned from a pay-as-you-go model to a hybrid structure that combines social pooling with individually funded accounts. The sector currently confronts several major challenges. Foremost is the uneven...

August 26, 2025
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20Aug

Asia’s elderly risk getting sicker for longer. Hotelier Allen Law wants to ‘bridge the gap’ between lifespan and healthspan

Residents of developed Asian economies, like Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, and South Korea, consistently top the rankings of places with the world’s longest lifespans. Singapore, for example, boasts an average life expectancy of 86.7 years, putting it at No. 2 behind Monaco, according to the CIA’s world factbook. Yet long lifespans come with a drawback: An extended period of ill-health or disability. Singapore’s average health span—the length of time where someone is deemed to be in good health—is 75 years, as noted...

August 20, 2025
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18Aug

Turkey is heading towards a demographic shift. An aging society versus the lowest number of children

The latest data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜIK) reveals a striking demographic shift in the country, as the number of children declines to unprecedented levels alongside a noticeable increase in the elderly population, raising concerns about the future of demographic balance. The figures show that the number of children under the age of four has decreased this year to about 4.9 million children only, the lowest number recorded in Turkey's history. In contrast, the number of those over the...

August 18, 2025
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15Aug

Retirement with dignity? The debate on active ageing in Europe

With an ageing population and increased life expectancy, Europe faces a very concrete challenge: how to fund its pension systems. Earlier this year in Brussels, pensioners took to the streets to demand better job security and to oppose the raising of the retirement age. In Europe, some are advocating lowering the retirement age as a way to improve workers' quality of life and to encourage generational turnover in the workforce. Others argue that this would jeopardise the sustainability of pension systems,...

August 15, 2025
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15Aug

Retirement with dignity? The debate on active ageing in Europe

With an ageing population and increased life expectancy, Europe faces a very concrete challenge: how to fund its pension systems. Earlier this year in Brussels, pensioners took to the streets to demand better job security and to oppose the raising of the retirement age. In Europe, some are advocating lowering the retirement age as a way to improve workers' quality of life and to encourage generational turnover in the workforce. Others argue that this would jeopardise the sustainability of pension systems,...

August 15, 2025
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12Aug

One in Three Older Households Is Cost Burdened

The recently released State of the Nation’s Housing 2025 report highlights worrying trends in housing affordability for older households (those led by someone age 65 or over). In 2023, over a third (34 percent) of older households were cost burdened, paying more than 30 percent of their income for housing. This represents a new high of over 12.4 million households and an increase of nearly 2.3 million households just since 2019. More than half of these households, 6.7 million, pay over...

August 12, 2025
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08Aug

Rejuvenating Economics: Subjective Age’s Influence on Work-Life Balance

By Andre Briviba, Valentin Schnellmann & Bruno S. Frey Chronological age is a key indicator in economics, determining policy decisions such as the retirement age and the minimum voting age. The concept of subjective age, extensively studied by gerontologists and psychologists, may be particularly relevant to economic decision-making. Using panel data from German adults aged 40–65 and individual fixed-effects estimations, we investigate the effect of subjective age on work and life satisfaction. Furthermore, we estimate the impact of subjective age...

August 8, 2025
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05Aug

China’s GDP could slow by more than half in the next 30 years due to population shrinking

China’s long-term economic growth is at risk owing to a shrinking labor force and rapidly aging population, according to Oxford Economics. The country’s potential output growth could fall below 2% by the 2050s, as low birth rates and a rising dependency ratio strain productivity and public finances. While developed nations like the U.S. may buffer this with immigration, China and others face tougher challenges in sustaining growth and managing social support systems. China may be the only nation that could rival...

August 5, 2025
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