Population ageing in Europe and Asia: Beyond traditional perspectives

Population ageing is the central demographic concern in Europe and Asia. Traditionalperspectives on population ageing are based on fixed old-age thresholds, such asage 65, which are not ideal for cross-country comparisons, as they do not take intoaccount the multiple dimensions of population ageing. Moreover, previous populationageing studies often ignored the diversity of the ageing processes across countries,men and women, and socio-economic groups.This thesis compared current and future population ageing in Europe and Asiausing new comparative ageing indicators that take into account differentials in lifeexpectancy, health, and human capital across European and Asian populations.This new perspective shows that the differences in the current and the projectedpopulation ageing trends in Europe and in Asia are smaller than were previouslyestimated. However, it appears that this diversity in population ageing trends ismore pronounced across regions, men and women, and educational groups thanwas previously estimated. The share of elderly in the population has been foundto be higher in populations with lagging life expectancy, health, and human capitalattainments: i.e., in most Asian countries, among women in the developing countriesof Asia and in Eastern Europe, and among the lower educated in both continents. Inthe future, levels of population ageing are expected to increase further, particularlyin Asia, where the responsiveness of population ageing to increases in education islikely to be high.Our results suggest that investments in health and human capital, especially amongvulnerable groups, such as the less educated and women in Asia, are needed todelay the onset of ‘old age’ for these groups, and to reduce population ageing and itsnegative societal consequences