The world is aging so fast that most countries are not prepared to support their swelling numbers of elderly people, according to a global study going out Tuesday by the United Nations and an elder rights group.
The report ranks the social and economic well-being of elders in 91 countries, with Sweden coming out on top and Afghanistan at the bottom. By the year 2050, for the first time in history, seniors over the age of 60 will outnumber children under the age of 15.
Perhaps surprisingly, the report shows that the fastest-aging countries are developing ones, such as Jordan, Laos, Mongolia, Nicaragua and Vietnam, where the number of older people will more than triple by 2050. All ranked in the bottom half of the index.
The Global AgeWatch Index was created by elder advocacy group HelpAge International and the U.N. Population Fund in part to address a lack of international data on the extent and impact of global aging.
“Unless you measure something, it doesn’t really exist in the minds of decision-makers,” said John Beard, director of Ageing and Life Course for the World Health Organization. “One of the challenges for population aging is that we don’t even collect the data, let alone start to analyze it. … For example, we’ve been talking about how people are living longer, but I can’t tell you people are living longer and sicker or longer in good health.”
Prosperity in itself does not guarantee protection for the old. The world’s rising economic powers — the so-called BRICS nations of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — rank lower in the index than some poorer countries such as Uruguay and Panama.
However, the report found, wealthy nations are in general better prepared for aging than poorer ones. Sweden, where the pension system is now 100 years old, makes the top of the list because of its social support, education and health coverage, followed by Norway, Germany, the Netherlands and Canada. The United States comes in eighth.
Marianne Blomberg, Sweden
Sweden’s health system earns praise from Marianne Blomberg, an 80-year-old Stockholm resident.
“The health care system, for me, has worked extraordinarily well,” she said. “I suffer from atrial fibrillation and from the minute I call emergency until I am discharged, it is absolutely amazing. I can’t complain about anything — even the food is good.”
Still, even in an elder-friendly country like Sweden, aging is not without its challenges. The Swedish government has suggested people continue working beyond 65. Blomberg also criticized the nation’s finance minister, Anders Borg, for cutting taxes sharply for working Swedes but marginally for retirees.
Truong Tien Thao, Vietnam
Truong Tien Thao, who runs a small tea shop on the sidewalk near his home in Hanoi, is 65 and acutely aware that he, like millions of others, is plunging into old age without a safety net. He wishes he could retire, but he and his 61-year-old wife depend on the $50 a month they earn from the tea shop. And so every day, Thao rises early to open the stall at 6 a.m. and works until 2 p.m., when his wife takes over until closing.
“People at my age should have a rest, but I still have to work to make our ends meet,” he said. “My wife and I have no pension, no health insurance. I’m scared of thinking of being sick — I don’t know how I can pay for the medical care.”
Abdul Wasay, Afghanistan
Afghanistan offers no pension to those not in the government. That leaves Abdul Wasay struggling to survive. At 75, the former cook and blacksmith spends most of his day trying to sell toothbrushes and toothpaste on a busy street corner in Kabul’s main market. The job nets him just $6 a day — barely enough to support his wife. He can afford to buy meat only twice a month; the family relies mainly on potatoes and curried vegetables.
He wants to stop working in three years but is not sure his children can support him. “You have to keep working no matter how old you are — no one is rich enough to stop,” he said. “Life is very difficult.”
