Time to reflect on Seniors Week

Well over 1000 Age-Friendly communities globally

Today I wanted to refer to Seniors Week which is on now. And the International Day of Older Persons is on Saturday.

A related point of interest is the New Zealand population in 2018 showed that 19.6 per cent were aged 0-14, 65.1 per cent were of working age (between 15 -64) and 15.2 per cent were aged 65+.

The average age in New Zealand in 2018 was 37.97 years, and life expectancy was 82.65 years — an increase of .18 per cent from 2021.

The United Nations Organisation was set up on 24 October, 1945, in San Francisco, and 51 countries joined. Currently there are 193 member states. New Zealand was accepted as a full member of the United Nations on 26 June, 1945. New Zealand was a founding member of the World Health Organisation. The World Health Organisation is “the directing and coordinating authority for health within the United Nations system and is responsible for providing leadership on Global Health.”

The Global Age-friendly Cities project was launched in 2006 — in recognition of the converging trends of urbanisation and population ageing. The Guide was published in 2007 and was launched in 33 cities in 22 countries. The project has “three pillars” and they are:

1. Outdoor spaces and public buildings that are pleasant, clean, secure, and physically accessible.

2. Public transportation that is accessible and affordable.

3. Housing that is affordable, appropriately located, wellbuilt, well designed and secure.

Currently there are well over 1000 communities in the world that are ‘Age-Friendly’.

If we think about which country has the oldest population then Japan holds that spot, with Italy and Germany following next. Membership of the Global Network of Age-friendly Cities and Communities ranges from rural villages to mega-cities.

In New Zealand we have three pilot communitiesKā piti, Hamilton and New Plymouth. It is helpful to know that the WHO Global Network for Age-friendly cities and communities currently extends over 47 countries covering over 298 million people.

The Older Persons Council usually meets on the last Wednesday of each month in KCDC Chambers at 1pm — usually finishing around 3pm.

The Older Persons Council usually meets on the last Wednesday of each month