Thanks to Dick Stroud for highlighting the the 2009 Ageing report [PDF].
Many interesting points come out of the report. This caught my eye - there will be a doubling of the old-age dependency ratio in the EU.
As a result of these different trends among age-groups, the old-age dependency ratio (people
aged 65 or above relative to the working-age population aged 15-64) is projected to increase
from 25.4% to 53.5% in the EU over the projection period. The largest increase will occur
during the period 2015-35, when year-on-year increases of over 2 p.p. are projected. Hence,
the dependency ratio is projected to more than double by 2060. This means that the EU would
move from having 4 working-age people for every person aged over 65 to a ratio of 2 to 1.
The increase in the total dependency ratio (people aged 14 and below and aged 65 and above
relative to the population aged 15-64) is projected to be even larger, rising by nearly 30
percentage points.
The impact on the working population will be significant, especially as more workers will be responsible for looking after older people (let alone a smaller workforce providing taxes to support the care of older people).
Useful links
Age discrimination Q&A from Personnel Today.
Google news RSS feed on UK age discrimination