All articles tagged with #ageing population
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink warns of an impending retirement crisis as the world's population continues to age, emphasizing the need for individuals and governments to prioritize financial planning and address the challenges posed by longer life expectancies and inadequate retirement savings.
China's ageing population, coupled with a record low birth rate and a wave of COVID-19 deaths, poses a severe challenge to the economy's long-term growth prospects, threatening key policy goals of boosting domestic consumption and reining in debt. With a large demographic group set to exit the labor pool and strain on the pension system, China faces structural imbalances and a potential humanitarian catastrophe. The country's low retirement age and declining birth rate are expected to impact domestic consumption, property sector, and innovation, leading to increased reliance on exports and slower productivity improvement.
England's chief medical officer, Prof Chris Whitty, has called for a shift in medicine towards prioritizing quality of life in old age over prolonging it. He emphasized the need for doctors to have realistic conversations with patients about the trade-offs of treatments that may extend life but compromise quality of life and independence. Whitty also urged families to have open discussions with older relatives about health choices and suggested involving GPs to mediate these conversations. His annual report highlights the challenges faced by rural and coastal communities with rapidly ageing populations and calls for increased healthcare services and infrastructure in these areas. The report also addresses health inequalities and the need for greater inclusion of older adults in clinical trials and medical research. Whitty emphasized the importance of individual actions, such as exercise and healthy lifestyle choices, in extending healthy lifespan.
Tens of thousands of more Brits are dying than expected, with 32,441 excess deaths in England and Wales from May to December 2022, not including Covid-related deaths. Experts are unsure of the cause, but theories include an ageing and increasingly obese population, as well as climate change. The use of age-standardised mortality rates (ASMR) offers some explanation, but population changes due to Covid and other factors make it difficult to fully understand the spike in excess deaths. The leading causes of excess deaths include ischaemic heart diseases, dementia, and Alzheimers.
Tens of thousands more Brits than expected have died recently, and experts aren’t quite sure why. Excess deaths have fluctuated wildly month on month, tumbling well below the five-year average or spiking far above it. The spikes in excess deaths can be attributed to a number of causes, but it isn’t clear what’s driving these spikes or causing these drop-offs. One of the noted causes behind a number of the excess deaths were ischaemic heart diseases - which would track with the professor’s warnings of a fatter population. Similarly, when looking at the leading cause of death across much of 2022, it’s dementia and Alzheimers - further supporting theories of an increasingly greying, and dying, population.
Shanghai's population fell in 2022 for the first time in five years, with 24.76 million people compared to 24.89 million in 2021, due to COVID-19 lockdowns and migrant workers leaving. China's population fell for the first time in six decades, with rising living costs, weak economic growth, and changing attitudes towards raising a family. Shanghai's birth rate dropped to 4.4 per 1,000 people, while its death rate increased to 6.0 per 1,000 people due to an ageing population. Political advisers have made more than 20 recommendations to boost birth rates.
As India becomes the world's most populous nation, some parts of the country are facing a crisis of population due to declining fertility rates and migration, leaving behind ghost towns inhabited by the elderly. Kumbanad, a town in Kerala state, is grappling with the consequences of an ageing society, with schools facing a shortage of students and teachers having to pay out of their pockets to bring students to school. The town is also home to many elderly residents living alone, with a lack of labour and a growing need for old-age homes. This is a story of demographic change that will be the story of the whole of India, finally.
China's population decline and ageing population are putting pressure on the country's welfare services and pension system. The birth rate has been slowing for years, and in 2022, the population fell for the first time in 60 years. China's working-age population is expected to fall by another 35 million over the next five years, and the number of retirees has already exceeded the number of contributors, leading to a drop in contributions to the pension fund since 2014. Beijing is trying to address these issues, but experts warn that China's demographic structure will be similar to Japan's in 2020 by 2040, and the country's economic growth will be worse than the US by 2031-2035.