July 2023

How a Vast Demographic Shift Will Reshape the World

U.N. World Population Prospects 2022 Young populations are those in which at least a quarter of the population is under age 15. In old populations, at least a quarter of the population is 65 or older. The world’s demographics have already been transformed. Europe is shrinking. China is shrinking, with India, a much younger country, overtaking it this year as the world’s most populous nation. But what we’ve seen so far is just the beginning. The projections are reliable, and stark: By...

Irán. Elderly to Account for 30% of Population by 2050

The percentage of people over the age of 60 will constitute 30% of Iran’s population by the year 2050, Mohammad Tabatabaei, a health official with the Iran University of Medical Sciences, stated on Tuesday. “By 2050, the country’s demographic window of opportunity will close; therefore, considering the age of fertility, we have less than eight years to solve this crisis,” Tabatabaei was quoted as saying by ISNA. He said that the first three years of the eight were key as the...

US. To Fix the Care Economy, the United States Should Look Internationally

The care economy and the role of caregiving in unpaid and paid work have been in the spotlight recently in the United States. In 2021, the proposed Build Back Better plan would have invested $400 billion in the care economy—including long-term care services under Medicaid, paid family and medical leave, and better pay for home and child care workers—but failed to pass after some legislators equated it with socialism. A recent executive order that integrates more supportive caregiving policies...

Longevity Is Being Redefined And It’s Going to Impact How We Work, Live And Play

We are just about to be swept into some significant shifts in how we live thanks to aging demographics. With so many of us moving into the latter half of our lives and our life expectancies extended (we expect to live to our 90s or older), this will affect how we live and function as a society in North America and in most advanced, Westernized countries. And there are already companies, think tanks, venture funds and government programs–many of...

Health Capacity to Work and Retirement Expectations

By Italo Lopez Garcia, Nicole Maestas & Kathleen J. Mullen Understanding how health influences retirement is fundamental for the design of targeted policies that encourage working longer. While there is wide agreement on the relevance of age-related health decline for determining retirement decisions, the process remains a black box. This paper explores the match between individuals’ functional abilities and job demands in the national economy using a new methodology to measure work capacity. Specifically, we construct a measure of work...

Japan. Panel Warns against Leaving Burdens on Shoulders of Future Generations

No matter how urgent and important some issues — such as the low birth rate — may be, the cost of responding to them must not be passed down to future generations. The government should not shirk discussions on the appropriate tax burden. The government’s Tax Commission has submitted to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida a report on proposals for medium- and long-term taxation systems. The panel submitted such a report for the first time in four years, since 2019. The tax...

The Silver Wave: China’s Rapidly Aging Population and the Rise of Elderly Education

By 2030, 1 in 6 people in the world will be aged 60 years or over. By 2050, the world’s population of people aged 60 years and older will double (2.1 billion). The number of persons aged 80 years or older is expected to triple between 2022 and 2050 to reach 600 million. China has one of the fastest-growing aging populations in the world. There were 280 million people aged 60 and above in China at the end of 2022,...

June 2023

The U.S. Population Is Older Than It Has Ever Been

While many 38-year-old millennials may still feel young, that age is an unusually high median for the country. The new data adds to the evidence that, like many European and Asian nations, the United States is graying, posing challenges for the work force, the economy and social programs. Low birthrates are the main driver of the nation’s rising median age, experts said. “It’s simple arithmetic,” said Andrew A. Beveridge, president of Social Explorer, a demographic data firm. “Fewer kids are being born.” Birthrates...

Robot Caregivers: China’s Solution for Aging Population

China, home to the world’s largest aging population, is facing a significant challenge in providing adequate care and support for its elderly citizens. However, in a remarkable display of innovation and foresight, China embraces the potential of robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) to address this pressing issue. Focusing on developing cutting-edge technology, China aims to utilize robots as caregivers for older adults, revolutionizing how aging populations are cared for. This article delves into China’s ambitious endeavors, highlighting the advancements...

Korea launches new team on population policy amid low birthrate

Korea's presidential committee dedicated to addressing the aging society launched a policy planning team Monday, with the goal of strengthening inter-ministry ties on population policies amid the alarmingly low birthrate.The move came as Korea's total fertility rate, the average number of children a woman bears in her lifetime, hit a record low of 0.78 in 2022, much lower than the replacement level of 2.1 that would keep Korea's population stable at 51 million.The Presidential Committee on Aging Society and...