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Age is more than a number when it comes to policy
Why how long people have been alive is not a good yardstick for judging who is ‘old’.
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The only thing a person’s chronological age really tells you is how many years they have been alive.
ST PHOTO: GIN TAY
DeeperDive is a beta AI feature. Refer to full articles for the facts.
Sarah O’Connor
I think there is an unwritten law that every article or policy discussion about the ageing population must begin with some scary statistics to frame the debate. So here are a few from the UN: Between 2015 and 2050, the proportion of the world’s population who are over 60 years old will nearly double from 12 per cent to 22 per cent. In 2021, there were 17 people aged 65 and over for every 100 people aged 20 to 64 (this is the so-called “old-age dependency ratio”); by 2050, there will be 29 for every 100.
So far, so familiar. But what if these statistics aren’t a useful frame for the debate?
