Aging of the Global Population as an Integral Problem of the Future

Abstract

This article analyzes the process of global population aging, which has a significant impact on all areas of public life in the 21st century. The influence of the population aging process on various areas of social activity will be determined by its scale and depth, i.e. by the potential demographic structure of the future society. At the same time, the ability of modern society to cope with elevated risks associated with this process is a problematic matter. The risks and problems associated with population aging include economic recessions, pension crises, the issue of caring for the increasingly more numerous disabled and frail people, maintaining the financial savings of the elderly, the issue of ageism, and the vulnerability of the elderly during periods of crisis and pandemics, and consequently maintaining life expectancy as well as stable democracy and even world order. These risks and problems are of particular concern given that by the mid-21st century two thirds of people over the age of 65 will be living in medium and low income countries. Moreover, aging will affect even today’s poorest countries that are located in Sub-Saharan Africa with their populations that are still young as of today. In view of this, the problem of social security and healthcare for the elderly is becoming increasingly acute and requires implementing proactive measures. The problem of population aging does not get enough attention from such international organizations as the UN and WHO; in general, studies on this issue both in the public realm and in scientific discourse are limited. However, even now global aging is an extremely important problem, and we assume that it will become the most crucial problem in the future. Thus, not paying sufficient attention to it might lead to negative consequences such as societal tensions, crises and intergenerational conflicts, as well as political and social instability. In this article we approach the process from the perspective of transitioning from perceiving it as a problem to considering it as something that provides new opportunities associated with the more mature and older generation possessing worldly wisdom and experience. Today specific measures must be taken in different areas, and special long-term programs must be adopted to promote a higher health-related quality of life (HRQoL) for the older generation, as well as to combat the widespread stereotype of feeling doomed at an old age, the idea being that your life is over. Grinin et al. point out the importance of technologies, the development of which can be stimulated specifically by the process of global aging and the need to increase life expectancy. As a background for the forthcoming technological wave (which we refer to as the Cybernetic Revolution), global aging may create an acute demand for labor-conservation technologies, as well as provide a powerful stimulus for the field of medicine. Progress in the latter realm would help prolong working age and improve health-related (biological) quality of life.