February 2025

China. Pensions Index expected to tackle aging challenges

In a significant move aimed at addressing the pressing global issue of aging, a top university in Shanghai has launched an innovative tool for sustainable and inclusive pension systems, which is expected to help China and other countries deal with the challenges. The China Pensions Index, which was created by East China Normal University, or ECNU, offers a comprehensive framework to assess and enhance pension systems, giving valuable insights to nations grappling with demographic shifts, a leading aging finance expert...

January 2025

Household Saving in Japan: The Past, Present, and Future

By Charles Yuji Horioka This paper explores the determinants of the level of, and trends over time in, Japan’s household saving rate, with emphasis on the impact of the age structure of the population, and makes projections about future trends therein. The paper finds that Japan’s household saving rate has not always been high either absolutely or relative to other countries and that it was only during the 1961-86 period that it exceeded 15%. Past and future trends in Japan’s...

The Looming Crisis: China’s Pension System Faces a Generational Challenge

By Jessica Huang China, a nation of immense scale and ambition, is in the grip of an urgent demographic crisis. Declining birth rates and rising life expectancy are rapidly aging the population. Within the next two decades, the number of retirement-age individuals is expected to surpass the entire population of the United States, with an estimated 402 million people over 60 by 2040—28% of China’s total population. This demographic shift is straining the workforce, social services, healthcare infrastructure, and economic productivity, marking...

Iran’s Aging Population: A Looming Crisis

On January 28, the state-run website Eco Iran published a report titled “Iran’s Population Is Getting Older,” highlighting the significant demographic shifts in Iranian urban households over the past decade (2014–2024). The report reveals a troubling trend: the decline of the young population and the rapid aging of society, posing serious economic and social challenges. Demographic Shifts: A Declining Young Population A review of official statistics underscores a clear decline in the birth rate. The share of children under one year...

Is Care Affordable for Older People?

By Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development With population ageing, the demand for helping older people with daily activities – so-called long-term care – is set to increase across OECD countries by more than one-third by 2050. Older people with long-term care needs are more likely to be women, 80-years-old and above, live in single households, and have lower incomes than the average. Currently, across OECD countries, publicly funded long-term care systems still leave almost half of older people with...

Challenges Related to Aging Population

By Drishti The Vision Foundation The Supreme Court of India refused to entertain a writ petition that sought the establishment of a dedicated Ministry for senior citizens. The writ petition referred to senior citizens (population ageing) as a vulnerable class that deserves special attention under Article 21 of the Constitution, which ensures the right to a dignified life. Source Drishtiias

China Plunges Deeper Into Unprecedented Population Crisis

China's population contracted for the third year in a row in 2024 despite an uptick in births. Newsweek reached out to the Chinese Foreign Ministry by email with a request for comment. Why It Matters Xi Jinping's Chinese Communist Party government has been rolling out measure after measure in hopes of encouraging young Chinese to have more children. Births have overall been on the decline despite the end of the decades-long one-child policy in 2016, leaving policymakers anxious over the impact this will...

Pension crises ‘will start to bite’ over next decade, WEF risk report finds

Pension crises “will start to bite” over the next decade in super-ageing societies, according to the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Risks Report 2025. Super-ageing societies feature as a key theme in this year’s edition, which is linked to risks such as inequality and societal polarisation. A super-ageing society is when over 20 per cent of a country’s population is over 65 years old. Several countries have already exceeded that mark, such as Japan, Italy and Germany. However, many more countries across...

An Older America Will Be Less Prosperous, But We Don’t Have To Get Old

America is getting older. Between 1980 and 2022, the median age increased from 30 to 39. An older population will impact the country in a variety of ways, some more obvious than others. One likely yet underappreciated impact will be less entrepreneurship. A new study by Rui Zhang and Mengyao Kang published in the Journal of Regional Science finds that countries with higher shares of elderly people have fewer entrepreneurs and new businesses. The increase in America’s median age coincides...

The gap is widening between super-ageing and youthful populations. Experts explain the implications

The World Health Organization defines “super-ageing” societies as countries with more than 20% of their population over the age of 65 years old. From pension crises to labour shortages, super-ageing societies pose a global economic and labour market risk over the next decade and beyond, even for countries still benefiting from their demographic dividend. The World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2025, highlights these concerns. With that in mind, we asked our in-house experts the following question: Global demographic divergence is expected to...