Our global population is ageing rapidly. By 2030, one in six people in the world will be aged 60 years old or over and the share of population they account for will rise from one billion now to 1.4 billion. In the US alone, it is estimated that nearly a quarter of the population will be 65 or older by 2060.

This marks a dramatic change in the demographic structure of our communities, shifting a greater need for healthcare providers specializing in care for those later in life and in making that care more readily available through changes to where and how ageing communities live.

The ageing population is growing worldwide
Demographers often show the structure of a population as an age-sex pyramid. Typically, this popular image shows age by year up the centre of the pyramid, with the male population on one side and the female population on the other.

For a growing population the base of the pyramid is wide, representing the large number of children being born. As it moves up the age groups, the pyramid gets thinner until it reaches a very thin peak reflecting the portion of the population made up by the very oldest.

However, at some point in the 21st century the global population pyramid will likely flip: what was previously the top of the pyramid will become its bottom and vice versa. This will happen at different speeds in different countries but it has already happened in Japan, Italy and Spain. It will happen soon in China, and the rest of the world will follow suit over the century. It’s just a matter of time.

As of 2012, more than 60% of the US population over the age of 65 was actively managing two or more chronic conditions. Reduced mobility will be a way of life. People living with varying stages of dementia will require an increasingly sizable proportion of dependent care.

The US is a good example of what the future portends for developed countries. The current healthcare workforce is not well-positioned to provide care for this ageing population. We lack the specialized medical personnel we need to provide care for elderly patients, and this shortage has only been amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic.

We need a new paradigm to address this care gap and help our society thrive as we age. Here’s how we can build that:

Design a new model of providing geriatric care
Trained and sustained care is expensive. We need a new, more effective and widely-available solution to provide care to those who will need it as they age.

In addition, single family homes are notoriously challenging for ageing in place, but with the square footage of many suburban homes in the US above 3,000 square feet and an average home over 2,000 square feet, repurposing these homes to house small communities with a care provider could help meet this need.

At the intersection of these factors lies a solution: repurposing single family homes to provide housing for two to three people with an in-home care provider to improve access to community and support for daily needs, reducing costs of that care, and reserving long-term care facilities for those in need of intensive care.

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