The World Population is Ageing

The shifts in age-group ratios in the population are confronting all continents with new challenges. The comparison between the years 1999 and 2050 in the graph illustrates a noticeable rise in the number of older people. United Nations forecasts predict an increase in the number of over 60 year olds from 10 to 22 percent by the year 2050 alone. The tasks for governments and society arising from this development call for renewed international cooperation. In this process, special attention will need to be given to developing countries, where some three quarters of all older persons will live by the year 2030. Current estimates reveal that demographic change in the so-called Third World will take place at about four times the rate of that in Western Europe for instance. At the moment Europe is at the top of the old age statistics with the highest life expectancy rate. In the period from 1960 to 1995 life expectancy in the European Union rose by 8 years for men and 7 years for women. In 1995 almost one fifth of the population was over 60, by the year 2020 probably one in four will be in this age group. There is a particularly striking increase of around 40 per cent in the number of the very old. At the same time the proportion of younger people is clearly shrinking. The age group of those between 15 and 26 years old alone is decreasing by some 13 million, which is a drop of some 16 per cent. Statistics show that the world population is ageing at varying time perspectives in the various regions and with differing rates of intensity.