One in every four people across Asia will be above the age of 60 by 2050 as the world rapidly ages, said the World Health Organization.WHO's latest estimates say that between 2000 and 2050, the proportion of the world's population over 60 years will double from about 11% to 22%.
The absolute number of people aged 60 years and above is projected to rise from 901 million in 2015 to 1.4 billion by 2030 and 2.1billion by 2050 and could rise to 3.2 billion in 2100.By 2050, Europe will have about 34% of its population over 60. Latin America, the Caribbean and in Asia, the prevalence will be about 25%.
India on the other hand has an unique problem -feminization of its aging population -the majority of India's elderly being women.
Estimates say that quar ter of the global elderly population will be in India by 2015 and the elderly popula tion in India will be more than 12% of the total popula tion by 2026. WHO said near ly 142 million people in the southeast Asia region are above the age of 60 years. The number of aged people will double by 2025, and triple by 2050 compared to 2000.
India's 80+ will increase over six times from existing 78 lakh to about 5.14 crore by 2050. The 65+ population is expected to quadruple from 6.4 crore in 2005 to 23.9 crore, while those aged 60 and above will increase from 8.4 crore to 33.5 crore over the next 43 years.
