Ageing and the economy: costs and benefits

Abstract

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to estimate the financial value of the productive contributions that older adults make to South Australian society and to compare this to the cost of maintaining them in good health and well‐being.Method: 391 participants aged between 65 and 101 years were interviewed over the telephone about the number of hours per week engaged in a comprehensive list of activities in the previous week, and half of the sample also completed a week‐long inventory of goods and services which they produced. The goods and services were converted into financial values using current market rates. The costs of health and aged care were obtained from official sources like the Australian Bureau of Statistics.Results: The total value of productive activities was estimated to be between A4.9 and A8.1 billion, and the value of work performed for other people was estimated at between 0.82 and 1.38bn (the South Australian older population is about 200,000). The cost of health and aged care was calculated to be about 1.8bn.Conclusions: It was concluded that older South Australians make essential contributions to society, contributions which have a very large economic value.