The population of the world is getting older. Much older. According to a report released in mid-July by the National Institute on Aging, the world's population of centenarians is projected to reach nearly 6 million by the middle of this century.
In the 1950s, there were perhaps a few thousand. Today there are more than 340,000, with the highest concentrations in the U.S. and Japan. And the number of centenarians is projected to grow at more than 20 times the rate of the total population by 2050, making centenarians the fastest-growing age segment. The population of people 80 and older is expected to grow 233% by 2040, compared with 33% for all ages overall.
I remember when people celebrating their 90th birthdays used to be able to get a shout out from Willard Scott on NBC's Today Show -- now you've got no chance of air time if you aren't at least 100. By the time Willard is done hucking Smuckers, you might need to be hitting 110 to hear a happy birthday from the big guy.
Demographers are attributing these dramatic increases to decades of medical advances and -- in spite of what you might have learned in the recent documentary "Food Inc." and recent publicity about the widespread presence of MSG in commonly consumed food products -- improved diets.
But another interesting trend that is helping the median age toward 50 in most developed nations is that doctors are now more willing to aggressively treat health problems of people once considered to be too old for such care. Now, a 75-year-old who receives "aggressive treatment" might well live for another 25 years. That's great -- but will they be able to afford to live comfortably to 100?
People may be living ever longer, but the problems that presents are becoming more apparent every day. Our society at large is completely unprepared for such a booming population of those 90 and older. We're not prepared to care for them, and they aren't prepared to pay for it.
The 78 million baby boomers in America -- a significant percentage of whom were already grossly unprepared for the normal financial realities of retirement -- are grappling with perhaps 30% losses to the value of their portfolio in the past year, the likelihood of working full-time well into their 70s, and the recent revelation that they may not be able to leave any kind of significant inheritance to their children or grandchildren. Most have no plans in place for long-term care needs. They believe Medicare and Medicaid will take care of them -- or some new form of government-provided health care that may come out of the Obama administration's push for health care reform.
Perhaps. But at this point, it is hard to argue that our country is anything but woefully ill-equipped to meet the needs of a dramatically aging population. I hope kids today really enjoy their childhood, because many of their adult years are going be to spent figuring out how to take care of their elders -- and especially how to pay for it.
Brian Anderson is the Editor of Life Insurance Selling. E-mail him at banderson@lifesinsuranceselling.com.
