In the near future, it is expected that the proportion of older people will be higher than that of young people in many developed countries. What are the positive or negative effect of this development

Due to the improved standard of living in advanced nations, it has been predicted that in the near future, the percentage of ageing population will exceed that of the youth.This will definetly have a detrimental effect on the countries.

Firstly, the major workforce of a nation is her youth. In a situation where people aged 60 and above are more in number than the youth, it means that the nation's workforce will be greatly reduced. As a consequence, there will be less active people available to do work and the productivity of such a nation will decrease.

Secondly, the older people enjoy certain amenities, such as local travel and health care, free of charge or highly subsidized. These services are being paid for with revenue generated from taxes. Since the ageing population no longer pay taxes, as they do not form part of the workforce, Government will have to increase the tax paid by the youth to enable them support the older one. The result will be disgruntled and dissatisfied citizen, or at worse , increased migration from advanced countries to developing nations were taxes are less.

Futhermore,as people get older,they tend to require more health care services. A nation with a higher population of ageing people will exert too much pressure on her health facilities. The long term effect might be a breakdown in primary health care and poor service delivery.

In conclusion, with reduced birth rate among the younger generation, it is expected that in the years to come, the ageing population will be higher than the younger ones. This could lead to reduced productivity, poor health care services and a generally disgruntled citizenry.Goverment should proactively make decisions that will help to cushion the effect of such a development.