Multidimensional comparison of countries' adaptation to societal aging

Abstract

As long-term changes in life expectancy and fertility drive the emergence of aging societies across the globe, individual countries vary widely in the development of age-relevant policies and programs. While failure to adapt to the demographic transformation carries not only important financial risks but also social risks, most efforts to gauge countries' preparedness focus on economic indicators. Using data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and other sources, we developed a multidimensional Aging Society Index that assesses the status of older populations across five specific domains, including productivity and engagement, well-being, equity, economic and physical security, and intergenerational cohesion. For 18 OECD countries, the results demonstrate substantial diversity in countries' progress in adapting to aging. For any given domain, there are wide differences across countries, and within most countries, there is substantial variation across domains. Overall, Norway and Sweden rank first in adaptation to aging, followed by the United States, The Netherlands, and Japan. Central and eastern European countries rank at the bottom, with huge untapped potential for successful aging. The United States ranks best in productivity and engagement, in the top half for cohesion, and in the middle in well-being, but it ranks third from the bottom in equity. Only well-being and security showed significant between-domain correlation (r = 0.59, P = 0.011), strengthening the case for a multidimensional index. Examination of heterogeneity within and across domains of the index can be used to assess the need for, and effectiveness of, various programs and policies and facilitate successful adaptation to the demographic transition.

Keywords: aging; international; society.

Fig. 1.

Measures in the Aging Society Index.

Fig. 2.

Overall country scores in the Aging Society Index.

Fig. 3.

Scatterplots and correlations of domain scores in the Aging Society Index. The data plotted in the boxes showing the red lines are scatter plots of countries’ respective domain scores. The numbers shown in the boxes are the Spearman correlation coefficients. The red line represents locally weighted scatterplot smoothing. The first column contains the r_s of productivity with the four domains (r = 0.44 with well-being, r = 0.17 with equity, r = 0.34 with cohesion, and r = −0.18 with security). The first row illustrates the respective scatterplots of productivity with (i) well-being, (ii) equity, (iii) cohesion, and (iv) security. Among all the correlations, only well-being and security were statistically significant (r = 0.59, P = 0.011). Productivity and well-being were borderline significant (r = 0.44, P = 0.067).

Fig. 4.

Country ranking by domain scores in the Aging Society Index.

Fig. 5.

Domain scores of six countries in the Aging Society Index. Countries with points located further away from the center perform better in the domain.