Managing ageing population

Managing Ageing Populations

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Population structure

The population structure of an ageing population has more older people than younger people as fewer people are being born, and more people are surviving to old age. Countries with this structure are usually the richer countries in stage 5 of the DTM.Older people are dependant on the working population (ages 16-64). So in an ageing country, there are more people that are dependent. So, like everything in geography, there are impacts. These affect the country's future development:

Economic impacts

The working population pay taxes, some of which the government use to pay the state pensions, and to pay for services like retirement homes and healthcare. Takes will rise because there are more pensions to pay for, and older people need more healthcare The economy of the country would grow more slowly - less money is being spent on things that would help to grow the economy - for example, businesses and education. More money is being spent on things that don't help the economy to grow, like retirement homes.

Social impacts

Healthcare services are stretched more because older people need more medical care. People will need to spend more time working as unpaid carers for older family members. This means the working population will have less leisure time and are more stressed and worried. People may have less children because they can't afford lots of children due to their dependent, older relatives. This leads to a drop in birth rate. The more old people there are, the lower the pension provided by the government will be. People will have to retire later as they can't afford to live on a state pension.

So like everything in geography, there are strategies to cope with an ageing population...

Strategies

Encouraging larger families - in Italy, women are offered cash rewards to have more children. This increases the number of young people. When they start work, there will be a larger working population, so there are more people paying taxes to support the older population. Encouraging the immigration of young people from other countries. this increases the working population, so there are more people paying taxes to support the ageing population. These strategies don't contribute towards sustainable development because they increase the population size overall.

Encouraging larger families - in Italy, women are offered cash rewards to have more children. This increases the number of young people. When they start work, there will be a larger working population, so there are more people paying taxes to support the older population

More strategies

Raising the retirement age - people stay in work for longer and contribute to state/personal pensions for longer. They will also claim the state pension for less time Raising taxes for the working population - this would increase the money available to support the ageing population. These strategies help towards sustainable development as they reduce the impacts without increasing the population size.