The World Economic and Social Survey (WESS) provides objective analysis of pressing long-term social and economic development issues, and discusses the positive and negative impact of corresponding policies. The analyses are supported by analytical research and data included in the annex.

World Economic and Social Survey at 60

World Economic and Social Survey 2007:
Development in an Ageing World

Greater longevity is an indicator of human progress in general. Increased life expectancy and lower fertility rates are changing the population structure worldwide in a major way: the proportion of older persons is rapidly increasing, a process known as population ageing. The process is inevitable and is already advanced in developed countries and progressing quite rapidly in developing ones.

The 2007 Survey analyses the implications of population ageing for social and economic development around the world, while recognizing that it offers both challenges and opportunities. Among the most pressing issues is that arising from the prospect of a smaller labour force having to support an increasingly larger older population. Paralleling increased longevity are the changes in intergenerational relationships that may affect the provision of care and income security for older persons, particularly in developing countries where family transfers play a major role. At the same time, it is also necessary for societies to fully recognize and better harness the productive and social contributions that older persons can make but are in many instances prevented from making.

The Survey argues that the challenges are not insurmountable, but that societies everywhere need to put in place the policies required to confront those challenges effectively and to ensure an adequate standard of living for each of their members, while respecting and promoting the contribution and participation of all.

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You may view the background papers prepared for the WESS 2007 below (other background papers will be available shortly):

1. Projection of health care expenditure by disease: a case study from Australia
   (Theo Vos, John Goss, Stephen Begg and Nicholas Mann)
2. Poverty among the Elderly in Latin America and the Caribbean
   (Leonardo Gasparini, Javier Alejo, Francisco Haimovich, Sergio Olivieri and Leopoldo Tornarolli)
3. The implications of aging for the structure and stability of financial markets
   (Jane D’Arista)
4. Population Ageing and Health Expenditure: Sri Lanka 2001-2101
   (Ravi P. Rannan-Eliya and Associates)