February 2024
16Feb

South Korea has the world’s lowest fertility rate. Seoul’s mayor thinks he has a solution: a city-sponsored dating event

South Korea has the world’s lowest fertility rate, at just 0.78 births per woman as of 2022. It’s likely to get even worse, with Statistics Korea, the country’s official statistics bureau, forecasting a rate of just 0.72 for 2023. That would be three times lower than the often-accepted replacement rate of 2.1, the number of births needed to keep a population at a stable level. It’s even worse in Seoul, the nation’s capital, where the fertility rate is just 0.59....

February 16, 2024
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14Feb

China wants to build a ‘silver economy’ for its ageing society – but who will keep it running?

Homes for the elderly are businesses like any other. But when Yan Guizhen established her first care facility at the turn of the millennium, she was more interested in providing a necessary service than maximising profit. Yan, 53, now manages six facilities that employ around 100 carers, tending to more than one thousand beds in China’s eastern Shandong province. But her dream to keep those of the older generation safe and comfortable has run into several snags. With China’s population ageing fast,...

February 14, 2024
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12Feb

The Silver Economy: Unveiling Investment Opportunities in Aging Populations

The global demographic landscape is undergoing a profound transformation. As life expectancies extend and birth rates decline in many parts of the world, the proportion of the elderly population is increasing at an unprecedented rate. This shift has created the “Silver Economy” — a new area of economic growth linked to the needs and activities of aging populations. As the number of older people increases, their needs and preferences will have an increasing impact on shaping our economy and society. For investors,...

February 12, 2024
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08Feb

US, Asia, Europe face aging populations

The United States, Asian and European countries must prepare for the needs of their aging populations, as there will be 2.1 billion people age 60 and older globally by 2050, the World Health Organization said. More than 82 million Americans will be 65 and older in 26 years, according to the Population Reference Bureau (PRB). Today, there are 58 million in that category. More Americans are turning 65 this year than at any other time in history — about 4.1 million...

February 8, 2024
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January 2024
22Jan

China. Revitalizing pensions and economy with innovative aging finance

Financial institutions actively manage the Basic Old-age Insurance Fund and the National Social Security Fund, adopting market-oriented, diversified, and specialized investment principles. This approach promotes appreciation in the first pillar of the pension system. These institutions not only handle the investment aspects of enterprise annuity schemes and occupational annuity schemes but also provide direct services to participants in processes such as account opening, migration, and withdrawal. This approach leads to continual expansion in coverage and fund growth in enterprise annuity...

January 22, 2024
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19Jan

Occupations Shape Retirement Across Countries

By Philip Sauré, Arthur Seibold, Elizaveta Smorodenkova & Hosny Zoabi We study how occupations shape individual and aggregate retirement behavior. First, we document large differences in individual retirement ages across occupations in U.S. data. We then show that retirement behavior among European workers is strongly correlated with U.S. occupational retirement ages, indicating an inherent association between occupations and retirement that is present across institutional settings. Finally, we find that occupational composition is an important determinant of aggregate retirement behavior across...

January 19, 2024
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18Jan

France joins list of countries where birth rates are declining

France’s population is older than ever, and its citizens are having fewer children. Just 678,000 babies were born in the country last year, the lowest number since 1946. The decline is primarily due to women having fewer children or none at all, according to Ined, France’s National Institute of Demographic Studies. The nation’s population still increased slightly last year, thanks to migration and a record high life expectancy of 85.7. These trends are not unique to France — births are...

January 18, 2024
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18Jan

China’s Population Drops by 2 Million in 2023 Due to Record Low Birth Rate

China has long seen the United States as its main geopolitical rival. But the Chinese government is facing a new threat – this one from within: a precipitous decline in the country’s birth rate, leading to a rapidly aging – and shrinking – population. China’s population fell by a staggering 2.08 million people in 2023 to 1.409 billion, according to the country’s National Bureau of Statistics. Its population had declined by 850,000 in 2022, which had been the country’s first year-over-year decline...

January 18, 2024
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16Jan

China Unveils Extensive ‘Silver Economy’ Plan to Adapt to Aging Population

China’s is rapidly getting grayer, and amid unsuccessful attempts to boost languishing birth rates, the country has now unveiled plans to reorient a significant part of its massive economy around its aging population. China’s State Council on Monday unveiled a series of measures to promote the “silver economy,” calling on both state-owned and private enterprises to better cater to the elderly and announcing plans to develop 10 industrial parks and increase public and private investments and innovation in elderly products...

January 16, 2024
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15Jan

Expanding the conversation about aging

Many issues facing older adults intersect with other social inequalities, but experts often fail to keep the experiences of historically underserved communities in mind when discussing aging. Since 2020, the MIT AgeLab’s Aging and Equity Speaker Series has sought to bring together researchers, advocates, and practitioners who aim to understand how aging-related issues affect a broad array of communities. “We think it’s important to offer a platform at MIT that amplifies the work of researchers who are thinking about issues like...

January 15, 2024
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