UK 13th in global table of elderly wellbeing

Britain failed to make the top 10 in the Global AgeWatch Index which looked at income, health, personal capabilities, education, employment and social environment to help highlight what older people experience in countries around the world.

The research put the UK behind Ireland in 12th but ahead of France, which was 18th, and Australia in 14th. Sweden came top, followed by Norway, then Germany, with Afghanistan the worst.

Several major European countries did not make the top 20 including Italy in 27th, Belgium in 24th and Spain, which came 22nd.

Experts said the index is the first quantitative measure of its kind to focus on the wellbeing of older people on a worldwide scale. It compared the experiences of older people from 91 countries and ranked them in order of quality of experience.

The figures could allow older people to more effectively lobby their governments and hold them to account over policies as the world’s population continues to age, the report suggested.

Prof Asghar Zaidi, from the Centre for Research on Ageing at the University of Southampton, was consultant for the project commissioned by HelpAge International.

He said: “The Global AgeWatch Index is the beginning of a process in which we are gathering all the available evidence of the lives of older people around the world.”

By 2050 the number of older people in the world will have risen to more than two billion and the index was essential to develop new ways to tackle the global challenge of population ageing and to enable older people to have a voice, experts said.

Silvia Stefanoni, interim chief executive of HelpAge International, said: “The world is rapidly ageing: people over 60 years of age already exceed children under five, and by 2050 they will outnumber children under 15. However, the continual exclusion of ageing from national and global agendas is one of the biggest obstacles to meeting the needs of the world’s ageing population.

“By giving us a better understanding of the quality of life of women and men as they age, this new index can help us focus our attention on where things are going well and where we have to make improvements.”