Describe and explain the economic and social costs and benefits of ageing and youthful populations - page 1
Keywords: Ageing Populations
By 4stuchfi on 01/10/2008
Level: A Level (Year 13)
Page Number: 1 of 3 pages: 1 2 3
Ageing populations usually shows that a country is an MEDC, which of course is a good thing. It shows that medical care is very good, diseases are low, diets are nutritional and that there is a good standard of living. The benefits of having lots of elderly people is that the death rate is lower, some provide a service for the country if they are still working and often they are involved in politics using their wisdom to help the country, so in an MEDC an ageing population can be a good thing. However if they are too many elderly then problems start to develop. After all the elderly are part of the dependant population and most, although some do, don’t have jobs and contribute to the country and its economy. They do not pay taxes because they are not earning and so just take money from the country in the form of state pensions and other social security benefits. The young and active population therefore has to work hard to support the dependant population so that they can obtain their pensions. However if there are too many elderly people then the country, for example the United Kingdom, which has an ageing population will become very strained. They are too many elderly dependant people to support, this occurs when the active population cannot equal by working the amount of money which the dependant population are taking from the government. Effectively the government is losing money all the time if this does happen. Also with more elderly people, more care homes need to be made, more staff to be employed who need to be specially trained to work in the care homes and care for the elderly and generally more support from the NHS, as they are potentially most at risk from death. This is a great cost to a country.
In LEDC’S an ageing population could benefit them, for example in Nigeria, an ageing population would reduce the death rate. These elderly people could work a bit to help contribute to the country or teach younger generations how to farm or do specialist jobs. A benefit of an ageing population in an LEDC could also be lifting them out of poverty and turning them into developing or developed countries. However arguably the costs of having an ageing population are larger than the benefits. The elderly do need to be looked after
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