What is life like for our elderly? An empirical study of the quality of life of older people in Colombia

Abstract

Life expectancy has increased considerably over the last 50 years; and population pyramids have inverted as the number of older people has grown. This study analyses the quality of life enjoyed by older people in nine of Colombia’s regions or departments, as rated in four categories: “Very good”, “Good”, “Fair” or “Poor”. It estimates an ordered multinomial logistic model using 20,720 observations taken from the 2018 National Quality of Life Survey, which altogether represent 3,914,448 individuals. The results suggest that the average probability of having a quality of life rated good is 80.2%, with variations between geographical areas and differences that are associated positively with being a woman, belonging to medium and high socioeconomic groups, not missing daily meals, having a home of one’s own home, not being affiliated to the subsidized social security regime and not feeling insecure or poor, among other factors.