The world's population is becoming steadily greyer with the number of people aged over 65 on course to overtake the number of infants for the first time in history, a study has found.
The world's population is becoming steadily greyer with the number of people aged over 65 on course to overtake the number of infants for the first time in history, a study has found.
While the populations of Europe and North America have been steadily ageing for decades, this trend is now spreading to the developing world, especially Asia
With every passing month, another 870,000 people turn 65 and the world's cohort of pensioners becomes larger still. Thanks to rising life expectancy, their ranks will soon be growing by almost two million a month and, by 2040, their numbers will have doubled to 1.3 billion.
This will reduce the size of the working population and impose huge new pension costs, threatening to reduce the overall growth of the world economy.
The US Census Bureau predicts pensioners will soon overtake the number of infants under the age of five because old people are now increasing faster than the very youngest human beings. The lines on the graph will cross within a decade, marking a decisive moment in the greying of the globe.
While the populations of Europe and North America have been steadily ageing for decades, this trend is now spreading to the developing world, especially Asia. Rising life expectancy and better health care, coupled with lower fertility rates, mean that some Asian nations must prepare for large rises in their pensioner population.
In China, the number of citizens above 65 will more than treble from 106 million today to 329 million by 2040. This will hugely increase the cost of pensions and impose a major constraint on the future growth of China's economy. The stellar growth rates which have buoyed China's economy will become impossible with so many people set to leave the working population.
Once, the rich world was alone in shepherding large numbers of people to their 65th birthdays. But leaving aside Zimbabwe, where an Aids epidemic and general starvation means that most people die before the age of 40, life expectancy is rising strongly almost everywhere.
Consequently, most people of pensionable age already live in poor countries. "Well over half of the world's people aged 65 and over now live in developing nations: 62 per cent, or 313 million people," said the Census Bureau report. "By 2040, this share is projected to exceed three quarters, with the absolute number of older people in developing countries topping one billion."The world's population is becoming steadily greyer with the number of people aged over 65 on course to overtake the number of infants for the first time in history, a study has found.
While the populations of Europe and North America have been steadily ageing for decades, this trend is now spreading to the developing world, especially Asia
With every passing month, another 870,000 people turn 65 and the world's cohort of pensioners becomes larger still. Thanks to rising life expectancy, their ranks will soon be growing by almost two million a month and, by 2040, their numbers will have doubled to 1.3 billion.
This will reduce the size of the working population and impose huge new pension costs, threatening to reduce the overall growth of the world economy.
The US Census Bureau predicts pensioners will soon overtake the number of infants under the age of five because old people are now increasing faster than the very youngest human beings. The lines on the graph will cross within a decade, marking a decisive moment in the greying of the globe.
While the populations of Europe and North America have been steadily ageing for decades, this trend is now spreading to the developing world, especially Asia. Rising life expectancy and better health care, coupled with lower fertility rates, mean that some Asian nations must prepare for large rises in their pensioner population.
In China, the number of citizens above 65 will more than treble from 106 million today to 329 million by 2040. This will hugely increase the cost of pensions and impose a major constraint on the future growth of China's economy. The stellar growth rates which have buoyed China's economy will become impossible with so many people set to leave the working population.
Once, the rich world was alone in shepherding large numbers of people to their 65th birthdays. But leaving aside Zimbabwe, where an Aids epidemic and general starvation means that most people die before the age of 40, life expectancy is rising strongly almost everywhere.
Consequently, most people of pensionable age already live in poor countries. "Well over half of the world's people aged 65 and over now live in developing nations: 62 per cent, or 313 million people," said the Census Bureau report. "By 2040, this share is projected to exceed three quarters, with the absolute number of older people in developing countries topping one billioThe world's population is becoming steadily greyer with the number of people aged over 65 on course to overtake the number of infants for the first time in history, a study has found.
While the populations of Europe and North America have been steadily ageing for decades, this trend is now spreading to the developing world, especially Asia
With every passing month, another 870,000 people turn 65 and the world's cohort of pensioners becomes larger still. Thanks to rising life expectancy, their ranks will soon be growing by almost two million a month and, by 2040, their numbers will have doubled to 1.3 billion.
This will reduce the size of the working population and impose huge new pension costs, threatening to reduce the overall growth of the world economy.
The US Census Bureau predicts pensioners will soon overtake the number of infants under the age of five because old people are now increasing faster than the very youngest human beings. The lines on the graph will cross within a decade, marking a decisive moment in the greying of the globe.
While the populations of Europe and North America have been steadily ageing for decades, this trend is now spreading to the developing world, especially Asia. Rising life expectancy and better health care, coupled with lower fertility rates, mean that some Asian nations must prepare for large rises in their pensioner population.
In China, the number of citizens above 65 will more than treble from 106 million today to 329 million by 2040. This will hugely increase the cost of pensions and impose a major constraint on the future growth of China's economy. The stellar growth rates which have buoyed China's economy will become impossible with so many people set to leave the working population.
Once, the rich world was alone in shepherding large numbers of people to their 65th birthdays. But leaving aside Zimbabwe, where an Aids epidemic and general starvation means that most people die before the age of 40, life expectancy is rising strongly almost everywhere.
Consequently, most people of pensionable age already live in poor countries. "Well over half of the world's people aged 65 and over now live in developing nations: 62 per cent, or 313 million people," said the Census Bureau report. "By 2040, this share is projected to exceed three quarters, with the absolute number of older people in developing countries topping one billion."
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