August 2022

Portugal becomes fastest aging country in EU: Study

Portugal currently registers 182 elderly (aged 65 years and above) for every 100 young people (aged up to 14 years), becoming the fastest aging country in the European Union (EU), according to a study published by the Contemporary Portugal Database Pordata. In the past three decades, the elderly population tripled in the country, according to the study, based on data from the Portuguese National Statistics Institute (INE) and published by Publico newspaper on Sunday. In 1990, Portugal registered 66 elderly for...

Philippines has little time to address aging population – Pupulation Commission

The government should start investing on long-term programs to manage the increasing number of senior citizens in the country, particularly on health-care and employment opportunities, the Commission on Population and Development (Popcom) executive director said on Wednesday. “What we need are programs to achieve active and healthy aging, including community-based rehabilitation programs. We also need programs for geriatric care … Eventually, if there are really growing numbers, let’s say beyond 10 million population, we also have to develop programs for...

U.S. University launches degree that prepares students to address aging society’s growing health care needs

UTSA will launch a new bachelor of science degree program in Health, Aging & Society this fall. The new program, which will be offered through the College for Health, Community and Policy (HCAP), will be the first of its kind in the San Antonio area and is designed to address the growing need for health care support occupations and community- and social-service professionals. Students will learn critical skills to begin a career focused on managing and coordinating hospitals, nursing homes...

How this man went from unemployment to early retirement in the Caribbean

“I’m having the time of my life,” Mike Whalen beams, when I meet him at his restaurant in Ambergris Caye, Belize. “I’m still learning as I go, but what better place to do it than a tropical island? I live and work on ‘Coconut Drive’! How could I possibly have a single, solitary regret?” In July 2020, at the age of 51, Mike had reached a dire crossroads. He’d worked at AT&T in Oklahoma City for years, but after cutbacks...

Canada. Employment rate at historic high but aging population remains mostly out of work

A new study has found that although the employment rate for Canadians between 15 and 64 years of age (working age) is at a historic high, the overall labor market has yet to fully recover from the pandemic-induced recession due to the continued aging of the country’s population. The study was conducted by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank. The study compares labor statistics for the first five months of 2022 relative to the same period in...

July 2022

‘How do you grow an economy without young people?’: What falling birth rates mean

Falling birth rates across nearly all the developed world – and now much of the developing world – have demographers like Paul Morland concerned. While the planet as a whole is projected to be home to 9.8 billion people by 2050 – up from 7.96 billion today – a vast number of countries, from within Europe to South-East Asia to the Americas, are dealing with decades of sub-replacement fertility, which means a total fertility rate (TFR) below the 2.1...

China faces largest retirement wave in next 10 years

It is estimated that in the next 10 years, an average of 20 million people will retire each year, according to a recently published article by Banyuetan, a journal under China’s Xinhua News Agency. According to mainland media, the first impact of the retirement wave is the significant decline of the working-age population. Peng Xizhe, Dean of the Institute of Aging at Fudan University, pointed out that in the tide of retirement, more than 20 million people will retire every year....

Shifting Our Aging Society From A Burden To An Asset

Each year the World Economic Forum publishes its Global Risks Report, which aims to outline the biggest threats facing society in the year ahead. The 2022 edition features many common sights, including climate action failure, extreme weather, and biodiversity loss. Such catastrophic events often succumb to the so-called availability heuristic, whereby we're naturally drawn to the things we're familiar with. In the case of the kind of threats posed in the Global Risks report, these are all risks that...

China’s population to start to shrink before 2025: Global Times

China's population growth rate has slowed significantly and is expected to turn negative ahead of 2025, the state-backed Global Times reported, citing a senior health official. Birth data released late on Sunday showed that the number of new births in 2021 was the lowest in decades in several provinces. The number of births in the central Hunan Province fell below 500,000 for the first time in nearly 60 years, the Global Times said. Only China's southern Guangdong Province had more than...

Rising life expectancy in Africa triggers urgent need for pension penetration

Governor John Rwangombwa of the Central Bank has said that the improved life expectancy in Africa is a positive factor on its own but it rings an urgent call to increase pension penetration on the continent. He was speaking during the 3rd Africa Pension Supervisor Forum that started on Thursday July 14. Started in 2019, the forum offers a platform where pension regulators share ideas, information, and reform issues that are challenging the sector across Africa. Discussions include performance of the pension...