Continuing population aging in recent decades has spread and became a global phenomenon, therefore now population aging is recognized as one of the most important demographic trends of the 21st century (UNFPA, 2012, link to: http://www.unfpa.org/).
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA, 2012) noted that population aging brings us two messages - Celebration and Challenge. The reason to celebrate is associated with the opportunity to live longer lives. The average life expectancy in European Union countries has reached almost 80 years (79.9 in 2013, Eurostat, 2015). Seventeen out of twenty-eight (61 percent) European Union member states have a special occasion to celebrate the achievements of civilization - the average life expectancy of these populations in 2013 was more than 80 years (Fig. 1). To these countries belongs Iceland as well – a partner country of INNOMEC project.
Unfortunately, the new member states of the EU – the Central and Eastern European countries - are still far out of touch with the European leaders. The life expectancy for the Eastern and Central European population in 2013 ranged from 77.5 to 73.4 years (Fig. 1).
The majority of countries participating in the INNOMEC project is characterised by long life expectancy – Italy (82.1 years), Iceland (81.3), Austria (80.5), Belgium (80). Lithuania, which represents Eastern European countries in the project, in terms life expectancy, occupied the lowest position among the project partners, as well as among the European Union member states. Lithuanian population life expectancy in 2013 was only 73.4 years (Eurostat, 2015a).
Population aging is measured by the share of the older population in the total population (Fig. 2). Among countries participating in the INNOMEC project, the country with the highest population of seniors is Italy – people aged 65 and over made up 20.1 percent of the population in 2013 (Eurostat, 2015b).
The older population of Lithuania, Austria and Belgium represented respectively 18.2, 18.1 and 17.6 percent of the total population in 2013. Meanwhile, Iceland’s seniors accounted for only 12.9 percent in the total population. The share of the population aged 65 and over in the European Union at that time was 18.2 percent (Eurostat, 2015b).
According to the latest population projections (Eurostat, 2014), the demographic process of population ageing – the growth of the share of persons aged 65 and over in the total population – will continue in the coming decades.
As in other areas concerning the ageing of the population, there are many important indicators not only quantitative indicators. The growth of the number of years lived, as well as the increasing proportion of older people, raises legitimate concern about the nature of the years, added to the life. It is a question of the quality of life in old age [take part to our POLL N°1 on Innomec.eu]. Will society be able to provide the older generation with resources necessary to ensure a dignified old age (meeting needs of older people's material security, health and social care, education, self-expression)? How can we create one society in which all generations can thrive?
Increasing life expectancy and growing proportion of older persons in the total population forces us to review the communities’ and the governments’ approach to the social and economic role of the older generation, to the satisfaction of their needs, and the detection of their potential. To assess the socioeconomic wellbeing of the older population, in 2013 a new instrument was created with no equivalent – the Global AgeWatch Index (Fig. 3, HelpAge 2013). This instrument is characterized by the following facts: 1) it focuses on the person - an older person; 2) it enables international comparisons to some extent; 3) it provides science-based suggestions and directions how to improve the wellbeing of older people. The Global AgeWatch Index includes 13 indicators grouped into four domains (Fig. 2): income security (4 indicators), health status (3 indicators), employment and education (2 indicators) and enabling environment (4 indicators). The first two domains – income security and health status – reflect older people's wellbeing.
The other two domains reveal the potential of older people. In particular, the third domain – employment and education – is a proxy for enabling attributes of older persons themselves, and the fourth – addresses the enabling environment – enabling environment surrounding older people.
Fig 3. Global AgeWatch Index domains and indicators
Source: HelpAge, 2013
According to the Global AgeWatch Index 2015, INNOMEC partner countries were ranked in the following order: Iceland (81.8 percent out of 100), Austria (74.4 percent), Belgium (63.4 percent), Italy (53.5 percent), and Lithuania (43.2 percent) (HelpAge, 2015). Hence, among INNOMEC partner countries in the best situation were older people of Iceland, where their social and economic wellbeing indicators were of the highest rank. Meanwhile, the situation of the older population in Lithuania was the poorest: among INNOMEC partner countries Lithuania’s rate was the lowest one; and among 96 countries that were ranked by the Global AgeWatch Index Lithuania occupied the 63rd place.
To compare the state of the play in INNOMEC partner countries according to specific domains of the Global AgeWatch Index (Fig. 4), we have developed the welfare diamond measure of seniors by country, each edge of which reflects a certain domain. The bigger the welfare diamond the higher the level of the wellbeing of seniors.
Fig 4. Global AgeWatch Index values according to the index domain, by INNOMEC partner country, 2015, percent{2}
Source: HelpAge, 2015
Figure 4 shows us that the older populations' income security domain (in Fig. 4 it is illustrated by the spire of diamond) was one of the strongest elements of all INNOMEC partners - Iceland, Austria, Belgium, Italy, and Lithuania. The top spire depicting income security was the most prominent (values ranging from 73.1 to 86.6 percent). Seniors' health status reflected on the diamond's right spike is fairly expressed in Iceland, Austria, Belgium and Italy, where the value of the indicator ranges from 68.7 to 78.7 percent. Meanwhile, Lithuanian seniors’ health status was relatively low - the value of this indicator attained only 44.2 percent. The Employment and education indicator (illustrated by the lower point of the welfare diamond) is not the strength of these countries – in Italy and Belgium the values of this indicator were the lowest (respectively, 28.2 and 32.9 percent) as compared to the other project partners. Relatively high employment and education levels of the older generation were attained by Iceland and Lithuania (respectively 54.5 and 50 percent) while Austria with its 37.6 percent of target value was in the middle position. Measurement of the older generations’ enabling environment (the left spike of the welfare diamond) demonstrated high index values for Austria, Iceland and Belgium (respectively, 82.7, 78.8, and 73.4 percent). According to this domain of the Global AgeWatch Index, Italy and Lithuania are lagging behind (58.5 and 52.6 percent) among INNOMEC partner countries.
The analysis of demographic ageing trends and wellbeing of the older population in INNOMEC partner countries revealed that the situation of the older generation varies largely across countries [take part to our POLL N°2 on Innomec.eu]. Therefore we see the room for the input of our project, the aims of which are: (1) to improve the participation of elderly people in social and cultural life; (2) to foster mutual learning with younger generations and family members; (3) to reinforce local and European networks with a social responsibility approach, focusing on the contributions of elderly care centres to the lifelong learning strategy. We believe that the spread of the results of our project will help to create preconditions for a promotion of wellbeing of older people in a holistic way through increased and diversified of intergenerational learning opportunities and the integration of older people into the local life-long learning community.
{2} Higher index values indicate the higher-level of the wellbeing of older population.