The median age of Africans is currently 19 years. For comparison, Europe’s median age is 43 years and Asia’s 32. But this is going to change. In the coming decades the proportion of older people in some African countries will come close to rates experienced currently in industrialised countries.

While this might be news to some people, it has been a long time coming. There has been a steady increase over the past 40 years in the number of older Africans, and this trend is expected to accelerate. Its population of people aged 60 or older is projected to increase more than threefold between 2017 and 2050, from 69 to 226 million (see Alisa Kaps in D+C/E+Z e-Paper 2020/04, Focus section).

For some countries, an ageing population is already a reality. For instance, the proportion of over-65s in Tunisia and Mauritius is around seven percent, twice as much as it was 20 years ago. Similar patterns can be observed in Botswana, South Africa and Libya.

Life expectancy on the African continent still remains lower than in any other region, but the greatest gains over the past two decades were also experienced in Africa. According to UN data, life expectancy at birth rose by more than six years between 2000 and 2005 and between 2010 and 2015.

As improvements in poverty reduction and health are expected to improve further, African life expectancy at birth is projected to reach 71 years by 2045 to 2050, from 60 years in 2010 to 2015.

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