Elderly to make up more than 40 pct of Greece by 2050
Millennials in Japan, Korea, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain beware.
By 2050, you will have entered or joined the ranks of the world's super-ageing economies, where more than 40 percent of the population will likely be over 60, according to the latest United Nationsfigures. That places a burden on upcoming generations paying for a welfare system strangling economies with sluggish growth and mounting debt.
HelpAge International, a non-government organization based in New York, compiled a 2015 ranking of where the elderly have the best quality of life. The ratings are based on things like pension coverage, health facilities and access to public transport.
In the six countries ageing most rapidly, only Japan — already the world's oldest population — seems to be thinking of how to care for its elderly. Greece and South Korea are the worst places to live for people in their 60s.
The 28-page report highlights how the 2008 financial crisis has had a devastating impact on the oldest generations, especially in hard-hit Southern Europe.
Greece, which ranks behind Venezuela and South Africa, was forced to cut back on retirement checks in exchange for a bailout to stay in the euro. Lines of impoverished pensioners waiting outside shuttered banks became the human face of the crisis.
Japan, which came in eighth ahead of the U.S., "reflects progressive social policies," the report said. "It prioritized health and education early and established universal health insurance."
Over the next 35 years the global tally of people over age 60 will grow to 2.1 billion from 901 million in 2015, or 21.5 percent of the total global population from a current level of 12.3 percent, HelpAge says. [Bloomberg]
