Old age is changing by leaps and bounds, both in number (they are already 20% of the population and in 2040 it is estimated that they will be almost 30% with the incorporation of 14.2 million baby boomers) and in its philosophy and form. to understand life.
The majority of those who now retire have ahead of them, on average, about 20 or 25 years of life beyond the age of 65 (a time longer than that corresponding to the stage of childhood and adolescence and part of the entire youth). ) and, furthermore, with resources. Two circumstances that were not widespread until a few years ago. Experts believe that with them will come a paradigm shift that will end the stereotype of the retiree.
But the great change will come from the hand of women, because now those who joined the workforce en masse are reaching retirement, breaking the exclusive role of housewives of yesteryear, which revolutionized not only the labor and economic market of the twentieth century, but also the social one. Women who, finally, arrive with their own retirement pensions, independent of those of their husband, as was the case until a few years ago. And, furthermore, with higher education, which means an increase in their pensions.
“The change is enormous,” says Julio Pérez Díaz, demographer at the Institute of Economics, Geography and Demography (IEGD-CSIC) and coordinator of the report “A profile of older people in Spain (2023): basic statistical indicators.”
Few doubt the effect that the rise in female activity, which occurred especially since the mid-1980s, will have on pensions. “Within the group of generations that we call the baby boom, the evolution of women's participation in the labor market has been spectacular,” says Juan Antonio Fernández Cordón, doctor in Economic Sciences and expert-demographer from the University of Paris and member of Economists Facing the Crisis.
And it reveals a revealing fact about what is to come: in January 2005 there were 4,634,658 retirement pensions, 66.4% corresponded to men and 33.6% to women. In June 2023, the number of pensions for men had increased by 22.8% (0.92% annual average) and that of women by 65.6% (2.27% annual average).
In Spain, according to statistical data from the Continuous Register (INE) as of January 1, 2022, there are 9,479,010 older people. Women are the majority, outnumbering men by 30.5%, something that becomes more prominent as age increases. Octogenarians already represent 6% of the entire population, and will continue to gain weight in an increasingly pronounced process of overaging.
And this has only just begun. The elderly will clearly increase their presence until 2035, a legion of people who are physically well, with a modern mentality, who handle technologies, independent, who take care of themselves and with a desire to live (the Spaniards at this moment live in good health average up to 75-76 years). In addition, they have economic resources, as described by demographers and sociologists.
Some older people who, contrary to what happened until a few decades ago, reach the new stage of old age in the company of their partner. According to the report coordinated by Julio Pérez, the percentage of men married when they die is 60.4% compared to 20.5% of women, because they live longer (women in Spain have a life expectancy at birth of 85. 83 years and men 80.27 years). But even this is expected to change and the gap will decrease in the coming decades.
Enric Soler, collaborating professor of the Psychology and Educational Sciences Studies at the Open University of Catalonia (UOC), recently pointed out that a series of circumstances favor this paradigm shift in retirement and old age.
The first is that baby boomers have had better nutrition, hygiene, healthcare and working conditions, as well as higher levels of education than previous generations. And this improvement in quality of life delays aging, she says.
On the other hand, this large group is very accustomed to great changes: they are the generation that went from dictatorship to democracy, the one that assumed a new European identity, the one that experienced the change from the peseta to the euro, the one that incorporated women to the labor market and also the one that has adapted to the change from the analogue to the digital world.
These are citizens who are becoming more educated every day, which leads to better salaries and, therefore, better retirements. At this moment, they represent 15% of the elderly. “The level of education is lower the older the age. Among the elderly there are still significant pockets of illiteracy and a population without education,” states the CSIC report.
However, the generational change over the last 40 years has meant a notable change in the educational level of older people, with a reduction in illiteracy and an increase in secondary and higher education levels. “The current generations of young people are the most educated in history, which predicts a future old age with a higher educational level and, therefore, with more resources to face problematic situations,” notes Julio Pérez's analysis.
