Explain the Geographical Challenges Resulting from a Greying Population

Explain the geographical challenges resulting from a greying population (15)

Firstly key terms must be defined. A grey population is defined as population change that occurs when the median age of a country or region rises due to rising life expectancy and/or declining rates. Also, in the case of this question, geographical hazards can include NHS, housing, pension and other things. One major challenge is the strain on the economy (specifically spending power of  power of people of both young and old) the cost of an aging population brings .Around 55% of welfare spending (£114bn in 2014/15) is currently paid to pensioners, with the state pension by far the largest element of this. The cost of this is set to increase by an average of £2.8 billion a year over the next five years, resulting in spending of £128 billion by 2019/20.This is challenge because it will cause the government to borrow more money which overall cold potentially lead to higher inflation which in turn reduces the purchasing power of people. This is a challenge because there is less money going into the economy as less money would be spent overall.

Furthermore, Growing numbers of elderly people will also have an impact on the NHS and social care expenditure. The growing frequency of long-term health conditions increases with age; and according to a 2010 estimate made by the Department of Health, such conditions account for 70% of total health and social care spending in England. The Department of Health also estimates that the average cost of providing hospital and community health services for a person aged 85 years or more is around three times greater than for a person aged 65 to 74 years. This is a challenge because as more people get older more people need care which would mean more training is needed which is challenge as currently less people are going into medical professions however it can argued that the level of care depends on the age as over 80 are more likely to have diseases such as dementia in comparison to under 70s.Also the cost of the nhs is paid for by younger people.

A further challenge of the aging population is the fact that the dependency ratio widens the conventional old-age dependency ratio is defined as the ratio of the population aged 65 years and older to the population aged 15–64. The inverse of this ratio is called the support ratio. The main challenge is that because there is less young people to support the needs of older people. This also applied to jobs as younger people may have to work longer in order to keep up with the increased levels of tax which is consequently going to state pensions.

To conclude, It should be noted that that the challenges vary within in the uk which is attributed to the north south divide which In England, refers to the cultural and economic differences between Southern England (the East, Greater, the South-West ) and Northern England (the North-East, West and Yorkshire. These present different challenges as residents living in the south generally have a higher disposable income so and personal pensions whereas the north tend to have more people with state pensions. It should also be noted that social challenges differ as well as if there is a higher concentration of older people there are less people saying that older people are a “burden” or “not helpful”.