Ageing population Flashcards
What is an ageing population?
One where the proportion of older people is increasing. (Also known as ‘demographic’ or ‘population’ ageing)
Give 3 reasons for why populations age
- Due to improved lifestyle
- Access to quality healthcare
- Changing social attitudes
What are 4 issues of an ageing population?
- Pressure on healthcare systems
- Public pensions (increased taxation)
- Expensive residential care
- Issue of encouraging young people to return to fill in skill shortage gaps
What is a positive economic consequence of an ageing population?
Good health and plenty of disposable income means that many people in sixties and seventies are helping the boom within the leisure sector.
What is a negative economic consequence of an ageing population?
Fewer people in the workforce meaning deprivation is evident.
- More pensions are required through increasing tax
What is a positive social consequence of an ageing population?
Creation of retirement resorts in popular locations means that pensioners have the opportunity to shake off the feeling of loneliness.
What is a negative social consequence of an ageing population?
There is a lack of willing carers for the elderly, therefore can be a burden on family or children. However, when handed over to professional carers they are shut away in sheltered accommodation (loneliness).
What are 3 strategies the government can use to solve these issues?
- Increase taxation
- Raise the retirement age
- Abolish state pensions
Why are those 3 strategies not effective/approved by the community?
Because they have both social and economic consequences too for the other population ages.
