The Silver Linings Of an Aging World

Detailed summary

Nobel laureate Daron Acemoglu argues that our aging world needs us to invest in technology and adapt our institutions to the demands of longer lives.

The world is undergoing one of the biggest demographic transitions it has ever experienced. About two-thirds of humanity now lives in countries where fertility is too low for each generation to replace itself. The result is rapidly aging workforces in most of the world, and the population in parts of Europe is already shrinking.

One way to measure aging is by looking at the old-age dependency ratio, a demographic indicator that captures the number of people in working age (15 to 64) relative to the number of elderly, retired people (64 and older). By 2035, for instance, Italy’s old-age dependency ratio will have risen from an already high 39% to 50%. Greece, Portugal, and Spain are close behind.

A similar demographic shift is underway in Latin America, including in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, and Colombia.

Opening of the article, excerpted from Time. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.