Cookies on this website

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you click 'Accept all cookies' we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies and you won't see this message again. If you click 'Reject all non-essential cookies' only necessary cookies providing core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility will be enabled. Click 'Find out more' for information on how to change your cookie settings.

In the end of the 18th century, Thomas Malthus maintained “the power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man” (Malthus, 1798). He believed that if unchecked by misery and vice, population growth would exhaust global food resources. He even predicted that this would happen in the middle of the 19th century. His prediction failed spectacularly, but nonetheless it helped him to make a good living out of it. Today, many politicians seem to follow Malthus’ strategy of crisis-mongering. It is a commonplace in political rhetoric that the increase of the share of older people will result in a crisis. Indeed, population ageing is creating serious implications for macroeconomic and financial stability: labour shortages, wage inflation, global capital shortfall, unsustainability of pay-as-you-go pension schemes, and growing health and long-term care expenditure. This data brief looks at the effects of population ageing on long-term care for older people (LTC).

Type

Report

Publisher

Oxford Institute of Ageing

Publication Date

01/03/2007