A Portrait of Europe's Aging Population

[Ioannis]

A Portrait of Europe's Aging Population - BusinessWeek | October 9, 2007

There are currently more elderly people than children living in the EU, as Europe's young population has decreased by 21 percent - or 23 million -- in 25 years, 10 percent of which in the last ten years alone.

Only 16.2 percent of today's EU population is less than 14 years old, while one sixth (16.6 percent) is 65 years or more. In addition one out of every 25 EU citizens is over 80 years old.

Italy has the least young people (14.2%) and one out of every five Italians is more than 65 years old. At the other end of the scale, Ireland has the most youngsters (20.7%), according to a recently-released report by the Institute for Family Policies based in Spain.

However, the decrease in numbers has been greatest in Spain, where the young population has diminished by 44% in the 1990 to 2005 period.

Despite these figures, the EU population has grown by 8.2% over the last 27 years, now reaching almost 500 million.

This paradox can mostly be explained by an ever increasing number of immigrants coming to the EU. Last year alone, 75% of the population growth was the result of immigration flows, says the report.

France and the Netherlands are the only member states where the natural population growth has been higher than the immigration inflow.

A relative population growth can be noted only in Western European countries, however, while in central and eastern Europe it has either remained the same (Slovenia and Slovakia), or decreased.

The decrease has been most significant in new member state Bulgaria, which has lost almost 8% of its population (7.94%) in the last ten years.

Currently, around 7.6 million people live in Bulgaria -- but if its demographic trend continues, they will be 5.1 million by 2050.

(Excerpt) ... read more here

[Arthur Gordon Pym]

Curiously, they just state these facts, but never give the reasons for all this, which are hyper-capitalism, hyper-individualism, modern mass-"culture", indoctrination through all channels....

[Cirrus]

Originally Posted by Plethon

Curiously, they just state these facts, but never give the reasons for all this, which are hyper-capitalism, hyper-individualism, modern mass-"culture", indoctrination through all channels....

Well, maybe that this demographic change is inevitable afterall (the same phenomenon happens in a country like Iran or Algeria).
The world population seems to be too hight since one century, and this is a real problem in our capitalist society :




The other big problem is that this fall in the birth rate is an unequal phenomenon : between Northern and Southern countries and demographies...



And also between natives and immigrants in some countries.

[Kernunnos]

They don't consider the fact that in the last thirty year the average life span of men and women has increased considerably.

When i was a child in the sixties death for people just above seventy was considered rather normal, people above the age of eighty were exception: centenarians were reported by newspapers.

Now for women to die above ninety years of age is almost normal.

Obviously this people count on stats.

[Menydh]

Originally Posted by Breha

They don't consider the fact that in the last thirty year the average life span of men and women has increased considerably.

Expect the official age for retirement to extend by a few years pretty soon.