Special edition: Healthy ageing
Ageing and falling population
Innovation is being driven by a demographic trend that is common to many western world nations but most exacerbated in Japan – an ageing and declining population.
Japan’s population is already falling – it has dropped by about 4m to 127m in the past decade as birth rates plummet. About a quarter of the population are retired and the average lifespan of 84.6 is the oldest in the world. The US is 34th at 79.8, Germans live to 81 (22nd), Malaysians live to 75.7 (68th). Sierra Leone has the lowest life expectancy at 47.5 years.
