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Silver, the new gold: Longer lives offer opportunities to tap, instead of problems to solve
Seniors increasingly make up a larger share of the population, and countries, including Singapore, are making adjustments for an ageing society. But longer lives provide opportunities to be tapped rather than problems to be solved.
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As the number of people aged 65 years and older increases, the fear is a falling old-age support ratio - the number of working population, aged 20-64 years, supporting people aged 65 years and above.
ST PHOTO: KELVIN CHNG
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Singapore will have the oldest population in the world by 2100, with a median age of 56.4 years, the United Nations has predicted.
While Singapore has been preparing for an ageing population for years, the figures pointing to such a new world ranking may, at first, not seem so desirable. Some might view the increasing number of older people as a problem to be solved.
