Life expectancy has increased dramatically in recent years. In countries like Spain, along with Japan, the world’s oldest, the average age is 84, up from 77 34 years ago. Humans are living longer, but this largely depends on where you were born and, moreover, things may not be as positive as they seem.

There must be a balance in the demographic pyramid, and there are countries where quality of life makes all the difference; a very, very old Europe and other extremely young countries. And all of this is captured in a very interesting map that Visual Capitalist created with CIA data and a film that has not changed much from previous years.

aging europe. When you look at the map, there are two clear currents. On the one hand, there is Europe, where the population centers are aging more, and on the other hand, there is Africa, where it is the exact opposite. Monaco takes the crown of honor with an average age of 57. It is the oldest country in Europe, and in the top 10 of this ranking, Andorra, Italy, Spain, Germany and Greece are also included.

The rest of Europe is far from these top places, but Croatia, Estonia, Austria, Ukraine, Hungary, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Latvia, San Marino, Portugal and Slovenia are also among the top places with a population between the ages of 45 and 46.

This part of the list also includes countries like Japan (which deserves a separate explanation) and special cases like Hong Kong, which has an average not far from that seen in Europe, as well as French territories in America like San Pedro and Miquelon or Saint Barthélemy. In the United States, the average age is 38.9, in China it is 40.2. France, Russia, Belgium, Denmark, Poland and the Netherlands have an average age of 42.

The 10 countries with the youngest populations. At the extreme end, there are countries with younger populations, which, like older countries, present a correlation between this fact and life expectancy. In the total list published by the CIA, we see that all of Africa has a population with a very young average age. While life expectancy is 16, 17 or 18 years in countries with low but high birth rates, Niger is at the top of this list, with an average age of only 15.

Moving up the list, neither Egypt nor South Africa have been bailed out. Egypt has been bailed out for 24 years, South Africa for about 30 years, which is in line with Latin American countries like El Salvador, Peru, Nicaragua, Mexico and the Dominican Republic. Colombia has an average of 32 years, and Argentina has 33 years.

The thing about Japan. When we look at the list, Japan is not the first country with an aging population. We have Saint Pierre and Miquelon (which is France but has very special characteristics) and Monaco ahead of us. In fact, Monaco is clearly ahead with its average age of 57. Now, it is always important to look further ahead, and although Saint Pierre, Miquelon and Monaco have less than 6,000 and about 35,000 inhabitants respectively, compared to Japan’s population of over 125 million, Monaco does not represent anything on a demographic level. In terms of per capita income, yes, but that is another topic.

Japan is a country without many conditions, but its population is very old. So much so that schools are closing due to lack of students, and there are companies that have reinvented themselves by producing panels for the elderly, such as a diaper company whose production has fallen dramatically since 2001. Except for one town, the country is experiencing a demographic winter that has no easy solution, and a few years ago, there were almost half a million more deaths than births.

Inferences. Spain, like many other European countries, has a serious demographic problem. When we talk about population pyramids, we also have to talk about how to support an aging population that will stop working when the time comes.

In 2017, the World Economic Forum presented the following explanatory study: We will live to be 100: How can we afford it? This reflected the concern that the population pyramid would not be robust enough to sustain pensions in a welfare state. And that affects not just pensions, but also the country’s own capital because there’s more spending on health, there’s less work, there’s an impact on the property market, and there’s a whole range of other cultural, social, technological, health and political issues that inherently affect the country.

After all, the global average age is 31, although this is something that depends largely on countries, and the average age in Europe is 44, an increase of 6 to 8 years since 2001.

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