An Ageing Population

Climate change is seen as the biggest global transition to affect our time, however ageing populations are a growing concern. As death rates decrease and life expectancies rise, more economically developed countries are faced with this problem.

The growing number of those over 65 is seen by some as a triumph, a result of high standards of health care and access to modern medicines. However, it forces governments to spend more on healthcare, pensions, transport and food for the elderly and the funding for this has to come from economically active people.

But there aren't so many of those. As contraception and family planning became more widely used, families in more developed countries have decided against having multiple children. Therefore, birth rates have decreased and in 20 years time there will be a decreased number of working age people. So less taxes can be collected to fund the care for the elderly.

There are solutions to this, but it won't be easy. Retirement ages will have to be risen so as to draw more people into the workplace and employers will have to be more willing to employ elderly people. Independence must be encouraged so less elderly people retire to government funded care homes, or they should be cared for by a member of their family, if possible.

A more obvious solution is to employ more working age people, but they will have to come from other countries. Until the public realise that without immigrants economies would collapse, this dangerous trend will continue.