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P1As life expectancy rises across the world, the proportion of elderly citizens is growing rapidly. While this trend brings real pressures, I believe its advantages do not, on balance, outweigh the considerable disadvantages it creates for governments and economies.

P2The benefits of an ageing society are genuine. Older people are a valuable source of experience and stability: many continue to work, mentor younger colleagues, or run businesses well into their sixties and seventies. Retired grandparents also provide unpaid childcare and pass on knowledge and family traditions, easing the burden on working parents and strengthening communities. A longer-lived population is, in itself, a sign of medical and social progress that should be welcomed rather than feared.

P3These gains, however, are outweighed by serious structural problems. As the ratio of retirees to workers grows, a shrinking workforce must support an expanding number of pensioners, which strains public finances and can force governments to raise taxes or delay the retirement age. Health and social-care systems face soaring demand, since older citizens require far more medical treatment and long-term support than the young. Japan, where almost a third of the population is over sixty-five, already struggles to fund its pensions and to staff its care homes, and many other nations are heading the same way.