Every person – in every country in the world – should have the opportunity to live a long and healthy life. Yet, the environments in which we live can favour health or be harmful to it. Environments are highly influential on our behaviour and our exposure to health risks (for example air pollution, violence), our access to services (for example, health and social care) and the opportunities that ageing brings.
The number and proportion of people aged 60 years and older in the population is increasing. In 2019, the number of people aged 60 years and older was 1 billion. This number will increase to 1.4 billion by 2030 and 2.1 billion by 2050. This increase is occurring at an unprecedented pace and will accelerate in coming decades, particularly in developing countries.
This historically significant change in the global population requires adaptations to the way societies are structured across all sectors. For example, health and social care, transportation, housing and urban planning. Working to make the world more age friendly is an essential and urgent part of our changing demographics.
Every person – in every country in the world – should have the opportunity to live a long and healthy life. Yet, the environments in which we live can favour health or be harmful to it. Environments are highly influential on our behaviour and our exposure to health risks (for example air pollution, violence), our access to services (for example, health and social care) and the opportunities that ageing brings.
Ageing presents both challenges and opportunities. It will increase demand for primary health care and long-term care, require a larger and better trained workforce and intensify the need for physical and social environments to be made more age-friendly. Yet, these investments can enable the many contributions of older people – whether it be within their family, to their local community (e.g. as volunteers or within the formal or informal workforce) or to society more broadly.
The biologist Andrew Steele thinks ageing is a disease that can be treated. But if we had a cure for getting old, what would that mean for us?
Every person – in every country in the world – should have the opportunity to live a long and healthy life. Yet, the environments in which we live can favour health or be harmful to it. Environments are highly influential on our behaviour and our exposure to health risks (for example air pollution, violence), our access to services (for example, health and social care) and the opportunities that ageing brings.
WHO works with Member States, UN agencies and diverse stakeholders from various sectors to foster healthy ageing in every country. Healthy ageing is defined as developing and maintaining the functional ability that enables well-being in older age. Functional ability is determined by the intrinsic capacity of an individual (i.e. an individual’s physical and mental capacities), the environment in which he or she lives (understood in the broadest sense and including physical, social and policy environments) and the interactions among them.
Health and Ageing is a research programme set up by the Geneva Association, also known as the International Association for the Study of Insurance Economics. The Geneva Association Research Programme on Health and Ageing seeks to bring together facts, figures and analyses linked to issues in health. The key is to test new and promising ideas, linking them to related studies and initiatives in the health sector and trying to find solutions for the future financing of healthcare.
