World faces ageing population time bomb says UN

[PN]

World faces ageing population time bomb says UN

The world needs to take urgent action to cope with the impact of a rapidly ageing population, according to a new report, which forecast that the number of people older than 60 would surpass one billion within a decade.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...b-says-UN.html

A major study published by the United Nations has warned that the growing numbers of the elderly presented significant challenges to welfare, pension and health care systems in both developing and developed nations.

And it bemoans the fact that skills and knowledge that older people have acquired are going to waste in societies rather than being used to their full.

"We must commit to ending the widespread mismanagement of ageing," said Richard Blewitt, chief executive of HelpAge International, which collaborated on the report, Ageing in the 21st Century.

"We must fully recognise that the vast majority of people will live into old age," he added. "By revolutionising our approach and investing in people as they age we can build stronger, wealthier societies."

Calling the ageing demographic a "megatrend that is transforming economies and societies around the world", the report estimated that one in nine people of the world's population of seven million are over 60.

The size of the elderly population is expected to swell by 200 million within 10 years past the one billion mark and soar to two billion by 2050, it forecast.

The number of centenarians in the world is projected to increase from fewer than 316,600 in 2011 to 3.2 million in 2050.
In Britain there are projected to be half a million centenarians by 2066, with one third of babies born in 2012 expected to celebrate their 100th birthday, according to Government statistics cited.

"The expected growth of the population of older persons should not be an excuse not to act but rather seen as a call to action. A well supported old age is in the interest of all generations," said the 192-page report, which was released in Tokyo, to coincide with International Older Persons Day.
Japan is the only country with an older population of more than 30 per cent, but by 2050, 64 countries are expected to achieve that proportion including Britain.

The report warned that the skills and knowledge that older people have acquired are going to waste, with many of them underemployed, underactive and more likely to become a drain on a nation's resources. Britain is among several European countries that have passed laws against employers discriminating against the elderly but progress has been uneven, said Mr Blewitt.

However successive British governments, like many others, tend to indulge in hand-wringing about the cost of caring for the elderly, he said, rather than exploiting what they had to offer.

Many have skills that would be immensely useful to the voluntary sector but have hardly been tapped on a mass scale. The report calls such opportunities the "longevity dividend".

"Rather than burying our head in the sand and saying old people are going to ruin our economy, we have to see the opportunity in this," said Mr Blewitt.

Ageing, said the report, "is a triumph of development".
"Increasing longevity is one of humanity's greatest achievements. People live longer because of improved nutrition, sanitation, medical advances, health care, education and economic well-being," it continued.
But it warned that the most serious impact of ageing populations would be in developing countries without safety nets or adequate legal protection in place for older people.

In nations now dominated by young workers, urban migration has eroded traditional care of the elderly in extended families, as young parents have left for the cities. The trend has also tended to leave the elderly acting as primary carers of their grandchildren. In rural China, the study estimated that there are 52 million grandchildren looked after by their grandparents.
China was praised by the report for introducing a national pension of £5 a month, but for every developing country that does have some kind of similar scheme, there are nine that do not.

The report expressed concern "about the multiple discrimination experienced by older persons, particularly older women, including access to jobs and health care, subjection to abuse, denial of the right to own and inherit property and lack of basic minimum income and social security".

[PN]

Population clock shows Japan faces extinction in 1000 years

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/populati...#ixzz2KGn1Nt7h

Japanese researchers have unveiled a population clock that shows the nation's people could theoretically become extinct in 1000 years because of declining birth rates.

Academics in the northern city of Sendai said that Japan's population of children aged up to 14, which now stands at 16.6 million, is shrinking at the rate of one every 100 seconds.

Their extrapolations pointed to a Japan with no children left within a millennium.

"If the rate of decline continues, we will be able to celebrate the Children's Day public holiday on May 5, 3011 as there will be one child," said Hiroshi Yoshida, an economics professor at Tohoku University.

"But 100 seconds later there will be no children left," he said. "The overall trend is towards extinction, which started in 1975 when Japan's fertility rate fell below two."

Yoshida said he created the population clock to encourage "urgent" discussion of the issue.

Another study released earlier this year showed Japan's population is expected to shrink to a third of its current 127.7 million over the next century.

Government projections show the birth rate will hit just 1.35 children per woman within 50 years, well below the replacement rate.

Meanwhile, life expectancy - already one of the highest in the world - is expected to rise from 86.39 years in 2010 to 90.93 years in 2060 for women and from 79.64 years to 84.19 years for men.

More than 20 per cent of Japan's people are aged 65 or over, one of the highest proportions of elderly in the world.

Japan has very little immigration and any suggestion of opening the borders to young workers who could help plug the population gap provokes strong reactions among the public.

The greying population is a headache for policymakers who are faced with trying to ensure an ever-dwindling pool of workers can pay for a growing number of pensioners.

[PN]

Decreased Number (Child) per Year: 280,000

http://mega.econ.tohoku.ac.jp/Children/index_en.jsp

[Rosy]

Global warming is even more critical.

[minority]

i thought housing shortage even more acute?

[PN]

Think in the context of Singapore & what the Government is trying to do.

In life, sometimes you have to make a decision on what is the right thing to do. Nobody will know for sure that this is the best solution but we know at least some thoughts has been put into it. It takes courage for Government to put forward such a plan even though they lost the PE Belection & risk of losing more seats in 2016 GE.

Everyone is entitled to his/her own opinion but talk is cheap (me included as well). Nothing is perfect in this world anyway.

[phantom_opera]

u guys never see how old folks in Okinawa enjoying their retirement

everything has pros and cons, a high inflationary environment is probably good for people in the prime but bad for retirees

[indomie]

Singapore as a nation is better off over populated than under populated. When we are over populated there is always a neighbouring land to occupied (ie. Occupation by proxy). When we are under populated, then we will see ourselves to extinction, slow economy and lack of defence. If we are over populated we can spread out all over the world to set up uniquely singaporean community and business interconnection.

[minority]

Think in the context of Singapore & what the Government is trying to do.

In life, sometimes you have to make a decision on what is the right thing to do. Nobody will know for sure that this is the best solution but we know at least some thoughts has been put into it. It takes courage for Government to put forward such a plan even though they lost the PE Belection & risk of losing more seats in 2016 GE.

Everyone is entitled to his/her own opinion but talk is cheap (me included as well). Nothing is perfect in this world anyway.

agree.. with that. coz there could have been easier way out and pass the problem to the next generation.

[hyenergix]

Singapore as a nation is better off over populated than under populated. When we are over populated there is always a neighbouring land to occupied (ie. Occupation by proxy). When we are under populated, then we will see ourselves to extinction, slow economy and lack of defence. If we are over populated we can spread out all over the world to set up uniquely singaporean community and business interconnection.

This is e basis of e boom in Iskandar, bcoz infrastructure n land reclamation will lag behind boom in pop. 6.9 mil is too modest, actual fig shd b higher. I foresee more pp buying hse in JB as weekend or retirement hse.