Ageing and health

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Ageing and Français
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1 October 2024
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Age-friendly World
Key facts
All countries face major challenges to ensure
that their health and social systems are ready
to make the most of this demographic shift.
In 2050, 80% of older people will be living in
low- and middle-income countries.
The pace of population ageing is much faster
than in the past.
In 2020, the number of people aged 60 years
and older outnumbered children younger
than 5 years.
Between 2015 and 2050, the proportion of the
world's population over 60 years will nearly
double from 12% to 22%.
:
Overview
People worldwide are living longer. Today most
people can expect to live into their sixties and
beyond. Every country in the world is
experiencing growth in both the size and the
proportion of older persons in the population.
By 2030, 1 in 6 people in the world will be aged

60 years or over. At this time the share of the
population aged 60 years and over will increase
from 1 billion in 2020 to 1.4 billion. By 2050, the
world’s population of people aged 60 years and
older will double (2.1 billion). The number of
persons aged 80 years or older is expected to
triple between 2020 and 2050 to reach 426
million.
While this shift in distribution of a country's

population towards older ages – known as
population ageing – started in high-income
countries (for example in Japan 30% of the
population is already over 60 years old), it is now
low- and middle-income countries that are
experiencing the greatest change. By 2050, two-
thirds of the world’s population over 60 years will
live in low- and middle-income countries.
Ageing explained
:
At the biological level, ageing results from the
impact of the accumulation of a wide variety of
molecular and cellular damage over time. This
leads to a gradual decrease in physical and
mental capacity, a growing risk of disease and
ultimately death. These changes are neither
linear nor consistent, and they are only loosely
associated with a person’s age in years. The
diversity seen in older age is not random.
Beyond biological changes, ageing is often
associated with other life transitions such as
retirement, relocation to more appropriate
housing and the death of friends and partners.
Common health
conditions associated
with ageing
Common conditions in older age include hearing
loss, cataracts and refractive errors, back and
neck pain and osteoarthritis, chronic obstructive
pulmonary disease, diabetes, depression and
dementia. As people age, they are more likely to
experience several conditions at the same time.
Older age is also characterized by the emergence

of several complex health states commonly
called geriatric syndromes. They are often the
consequence of multiple underlying factors and
include frailty, urinary incontinence, falls,
delirium and pressure ulcers.
:
Factors influencing
healthy ageing
A longer life brings with it opportunities, not only
for older people and their families, but also for
societies as a whole. Additional years provide the
chance to pursue new activities such as further
education, a new career or a long-neglected
passion. Older people also contribute in many
ways to their families and communities. Yet the
extent of these opportunities and contributions
depends heavily on one factor: health.
Evidence suggests that the proportion of life in

good health has remained broadly constant,
implying that the additional years are in poor
health. If people can experience these extra
years of life in good health and if they live in a
supportive environment, their ability to do the
things they value will be little di"erent from that
of a younger person. If these added years are
dominated by declines in physical and mental
capacity, the implications for older people and
for society are more negative.
Although some of the variations in older people’s

health are genetic, most is due to people’s
physical and social environments – including
their homes, neighbourhoods, and communities,
as well as their personal characteristics – such as
their sex, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status. The
environments that people live in as children – or
:
even as developing fetuses – combined with
their personal characteristics, have long-term
e"ects on how they age.
Physical and social environments can a"ect

health directly or through barriers or incentives
that a"ect opportunities, decisions and health
behaviour. Maintaining healthy behaviours
throughout life, particularly eating a balanced
diet, engaging in regular physical activity and
refraining from tobacco use, all contribute to
reducing the risk of non-communicable diseases,
improving physical and mental capacity and
delaying care dependency.
Supportive physical and social environments also

enable people to do what is important to them,
despite losses in capacity. The availability of safe
and accessible public buildings and transport,
and places that are easy to walk around, are
examples of supportive environments. In
developing a public-health response to ageing, it
is important not just to consider individual and
environmental approaches that ameliorate the
losses associated with older age, but also those
that may reinforce recovery, adaptation and
psychosocial growth.
Challenges in
responding to
population ageing
:
There is no typical older person. Some 80-year-
olds have physical and mental capacities similar
to many 30-year-olds. Other people experience
significant declines in capacities at much
younger ages. A comprehensive public health
response must address this wide range of older
people’s experiences and needs.
The diversity seen in older age is not random. A

large part arises from people’s physical and
social environments and the impact of these
environments on their opportunities and health
behaviour. The relationship we have with our
environments is skewed by personal
characteristics such as the family we were born
into, our sex and our ethnicity, leading to
inequalities in health.
Older people are often assumed to be frail or

dependent and a burden to society. Public health
professionals, and society as a whole, need to
address these and other ageist attitudes, which
can lead to discrimination, a"ect the way policies
are developed and the opportunities older
people have to experience healthy aging.
Globalization, technological developments (e.g.,

in transport and communication), urbanization,
migration and changing gender norms are
influencing the lives of older people in direct and
indirect ways. A public health response must
take stock of these current and projected trends
and frame policies accordingly.
WHO response
:
The United Nations (UN) General Assembly
declared 2021–2030 the UN Decade of Healthy
Ageing and asked WHO to lead the
implementation. The UN Decade of Healthy
Ageing is a global collaboration bringing
together governments, civil society, international
agencies, professionals, academia, the media
and the private sector for 10 years of concerted,
catalytic and collaborative action to foster longer
and healthier lives.
The Decade builds on the WHO Global Strategy

and Action Plan and the United Nations Madrid
International Plan of Action on Ageing and
supports the realization of the United Nations
Agenda 2030 on Sustainable Development and
the Sustainable Development Goals.
The UN Decade of Healthy Ageing (2021–2030)

seeks to reduce health inequities and improve
the lives of older people, their families and
communities through collective action in four
areas: changing how we think, feel and act
towards age and ageism; developing
communities in ways that foster the abilities of
older people; delivering person-centred
integrated care and primary health services
responsive to older people; and providing older
people who need it with access to quality long-
term care.
:

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Ageing and Français

By 2030, 1 in 6 people in the world will be aged

While this shift in distribution of a country's

Older age is also characterized by the emergence

Evidence suggests that the proportion of life in

Although some of the variations in older people’s

Physical and social environments can a"ect

Supportive physical and social environments also

The diversity seen in older age is not random. A

Older people are often assumed to be frail or

Globalization, technological developments (e.g.,

The Decade builds on the WHO Global Strategy

The UN Decade of Healthy Ageing (2021–2030)

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