#ageing-population

#ageing-population

In countries with ageing populations, there's a growing likelihood that many of us will be. But behind the dream of a cosy retirement, the economic reality is ever more complex. As populations age, the number of younger people entering the workforce is shrinking and that's a big problem for pay as you go state pension schemes where employees fund the pensions of an expanding cohort of retired people.

The population should be stable by 2065, increasing at just 0.1pc a year. By then, however, there will have been a "transformative" 26pc increase in the number of people living here. The working-age population will increase from 3.55 million to 3.98 million by the early 2040s, at which point it will level off before declining to 3.89 million by 2065.