Europe’s population is aging fast, forcing EU states to spend more on pension benefits. While governments want to raise the retirement age, savers are calling for a more flexible approach.
Europe’s demographic time bomb has been ticking for decades, with societies of European Union countries growing older and people living longer. More than a fifth of the European Union’s population is now aged 65 or older. That figure is expected to reach a third by 2050. The World Health Organization warned last year that 2024 would mark the first time that over-65s would outnumber Europe’s under-15 population.
Despite large increases in immigration over the past two decades, the continent still needs to attract enough workers whose taxes can help cover the growing cost of public pensions. Economists predict that by 2050, there will be less than two workers in Europe for every retiree, compared to three now.
Meanwhile, the annual public pension bill has reached more than 10% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 17 of the EU’s 27 states — all but one of them in Western Europe. In Italy and Greece, pensions cost public finances more than 16% of GDP.
You have care facilities? The Netherlands also closed most of them in favor of more tailored to the individual home care. It turns out that this is more expensive and labor intensive (a lot of travel time between jobs for specialised care givers), while all the old folks sitting isolated at home waste away in lonelyness.
Who would have guessed?!
Well, “care” is probably a stretch, it’s more like languishing areas for the nearly departed. Even the expensive ones. There was a local study a while back which showed that the most expensive care homes typically provided the worst quality of care.
Humans?