As populations grow older age simply as a number is an unreliable way of forecasting the economic impacts, say three leading academics. Reliance on chronological age as an indicator of GDP, for example, is at best incomplete and at worst misleading – because it doesn’t take account of the way we age. Quoting numerous sources in a fascinating article, they note that while physical problems tend to increase with age, “there is an enormous variation across people. The healthiest 25% of 90 year olds in the US, for example, are in better health than the least healthy 50 years olds. And they conclude that “overcoming the challenges posed by population ageing requires a precise understanding of how we age, the economic consequences associated with ageing, and how to achieve better health and economic outcomes.”
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