People around the world will live longer by 2030

Increasing life span has a lot of advantages, but it also presents challenges that need to be met

Anew study by the Imperial College London and World Health Organisation on the increasing longevity among several populations in the world is the kind of news that begs for a pause before exultation can be expressed.

According to the study, many countries’ populations would be living beyond the age of 90 by the year 2030, with the average age for men projected at 80 while for women it is 83. South Korea, for example, the study said, has achieved a fine balance between education, nutrition and long life while, in the United Kingdom, life expectancy between 2015 and 2030 is expected to go up from 79 to 82 for men and from 83 to 85 for women.

The global socio-economic implications of what the study reveals are significant. The axiom that improving health-care outcomes will directly, and sometimes, indirectly, lead to better economic outlook for a country as its population grows into a healthy old age is as valid as is the obverse logic — that lack of infrastructure for a ripening population could be equally problematic.

In Italy, for example, with a significant ageing population, its public spend on pensions is the highest in the European Union, according to World Atlas. Pensions take more than 16 per cent of Italy’s gross domestic product, as compared to 11 per cent for the rest of the European Union, it said.

According to the World Health Organisation, nearly two billion people across the world are expected to be over 60 years by 2050, a figure that’s more than triple since 2000. This calls for countries to have policies that will be able to address the challenges and opportunities that this new phenomenon creates and utilise the potential of their human resources to the optimum.