The Baby Boomers are Retiring

The Baby Boomers are retiring…and staying that way. What the aging world population means.

The Baby Boomers are at the age of retirement; this means a huge shift from the workforce to the retired community. But this trend is not limited to the United States, the world s aging as a whole, and this presents many challenges that have not been faced before. These challenges include changes to social insurance, pension systems, social support, economic growth and disease patterns and prevalence.
In 2006, there were 500 million people worldwide 65 and older. By 2030 that number is estimated to increase to 1 billion, meaning 1 in every 8 people in the world would be 65 and older. The most significant jumps will occur in the developing countries, with a rise of approximately 14%.
One of the biggest challenges that the world will have to face is increased life expectancy. As life expectancy rises, birthrates are decreasing, which causes the ratio of the elderly people to the young to increase. Life expectancy increases every year, and while this is a major accomplishment to the medical and social word, what does it mean in our day to day lives? There has been a shift of deaths from infectious diseases to deaths from non-communicable diseases such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes. This puts a strain on the current health care system, Medicare and Medicaid plans.
The age of retirement is also posing a challenge. Because of the aging population, more and more people are not only retired, but are also spending a longer portion of their life in retirement. This poses issues with personal and government savings programs, and also shrinks the ratio of workers to pensioners. Soon, the labor supply will be disproportionate to the number of pensioners a company is supporting.
Another aspect of the aging population that is often overlooked is the change in family dynamic and structure. As more and more people are living well into their 80’s, there will be a significant increase in the number of grandparents and great-grandparents in the family structure. Also, personal care and savings will have to be approached in a new way to accommodate for increasing longevity.
Now is an important time for the world: these trends are predicted and we still have time to act personally and globally in a way to prepare for the new population distribution.

Sources:
http://nia.nih.gov
http://csis.org/program/global-aging-initiative

These websites will also provide further information on the aging populations and how it is affecting the world.