Celebrating the triumph of living a longer life
There’s a huge demographic change afoot in the world. We’re living longer: worldwide, there are about 600 million folks over 60 and by 2025, that number will double, skyrocketing to almost two billion by 2050. The vast majority of these people—80%—are in the developing world.
People over 60 are an essential part of our world: through paid work and volunteering; caregiving for family members; and passing on insights and wisdom acquired through their experience. People over 60 are often vibrant, energetic, active folks with major contributions to make to societies the world around.
We’re here to celebrate all this today on International Day of the Older Person. Established by the United Nations in 1990, this day aims to bring appreciation to the contributions and challenges of this demographic. Population aging is a profound triumph, but also a huge challenge.
People over 60 sometimes face obstacles to living full, meaningful lives. During last year’s event, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on governments to do more to address the needs of older persons. “The key interventions are well-known: granting universal access to social services; increasing the number and worth of pension plans; and creating laws and policies that prevent age and gender discrimination in the workplace,” he said.
Older persons make major contributions to societies around the world. This is particularly true in Africa, where young and middle-aged AIDS patients are cared for by their parents. And upon the AIDS patients’ deaths, their orphaned children are left to be raised by grandparents. Right now, that number is a staggering 14 million under the age of 15 in African countries alone.
