Japan, the country with the world's oldest population as of 2021, will be surpassed by China and South Korea before 2050. The report also found that people aged 80 and older are the fastest growing portion of the total population in many countries.
With its population having fallen last year, China joined a club of major Asian economies navigating the same trend. Japan and South Korea are the world's fastest-aging countries, with South Korea holding the world's lowest fertility rate.
China's aging population is caused by a low birth rate together with prolonged human life expectancy.
According to the IHME study, seniors in South Korea and Japan are able to delay the aches and complaints of aging by about ten years compared to countries near the mean—like the United States.
The aging of the Japanese population is a result of one of the world's lowest fertility rates combined with a high life expectancy.
Asia and Europe are home to some of the world's oldest populations, those ages 65 and above. At the top is Japan at 28 percent, followed by Italy at 23 percent. Finland, Portugal, and Greece round out the top five at just under 22 percent.
Three of the best countries in the Longevity Management Scorecard are led by women - Finland, Denmark and New Zealand. As women make up fewer than 10% of world leaders, it may be significant that more age-ready countries are also more gender progressive.
Population ages 65 and above, percent of total, 2021 - Country rankings: The average for 2021 based on 196 countries was 9.72 percent. The highest value was in Monaco: 35.97 percent and the lowest value was in Qatar: 1.4 percent. The indicator is available from 1960 to 2021.
For example, the team suggests that the biological aging process isn't steady and appears to accelerate periodically — with the greatest bursts coming, on average, around ages 34, 60, and 78.
The senior years are the period from age fifty-one until the end of life. A number of physiological and emotional changes take place during this life stage. For example, many older adults face serious health challenges, such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, or dementia.
If your chance of dying within the next year is 2 percent or more, Shoven suggests you might be considered "old." The above chart shows that the threshold age for being considered old for men increased from about 55 in the 1920s to 70 today.
Australia's older population
Australia's population is ageing due to increasing life expectancy and declining fertility rates. Both the number of people at the older ages is growing and older people are representing an increasing share of the total population (CEPAR 2021).
What is this? Burundi has an average population age of 17.3 and is currently among the youngest countries in the world. This country is located in Central Africa and borders Rwanda, Tanzania, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Traditionally, Asians have been thought to age more gracefully than Caucasians. The resistance to aging in the Asian patient was credited to the thicker dermis of Asian skin that contains greater collagen and the darker pigment that protects against photoaging.
Researchers have found that environmental and lifestyle factors heavily influence biological age, including social connectedness, sleeping habits, water consumption, exercise, and diet.
Australia's population has grown older, with the median age increasing from 32.7 years at 30 June 1992 to 38.5 years at 30 June 2022. The percentage of the population aged 65 and over has increased from 11% to 17% over the same period.
China is forecast to lose almost half of its people by 2100, plunging from more than 1.4 billion to 771 million inhabitants. Russia, Germany, South Korea and Spain are all set to join this downward movement, with their populations beginning to decline by 2030.
Indeed, according to current projections, China's population is likely to drop below 1 billion by 2080 and below 800 million by 2100. Those specific numbers will surely change; the downward shape of the curve almost certainly will not. India by contrast will keep growing quickly for a while.
Africa's population is exceptionally young compared to other world regions that have been aging at a fast rate: only 5.6% of Africa's population was age 60 or older in 2020 compared to 23.4% in North America and double-digit percentages in every other world region.
The mobile-friendly MyClimate 2050 tool shows almost all areas across Australia will experience longer and hotter summers, with temperatures increasing by an average of 2.32°C.
At age 25, the gap is even wider. The most socially-disadvantaged men can expect another 51.6 years of life while among the top 10 per cent, young men can expect another 60.1 years. By age 65 the gap narrows to a little over four years and at age 85 there is still a gap, albeit eight months.