Switzerland has been named as the best country to grow old in for the year 2015, according to the efforts made by the HelpAge International's Global AgeWatch Index in collaboration with the University of Southampton.
The report, released on Wednesday, Sept. 9, assessed four key aspects in the aging population to come up with the results; these include enabling environment, health, education and income. The experts were able to collate data from 96 of the world's nations, yielding information about approximately 901 million individuals aged 60 and above. Ninety-eight countries in the world were not included in the study because of the significant lack of information.
What is noteworthy about this year's index is that millions of older adults have gone missing, spending their late life stages in countries where data about quality life is not available in international databases, said Toby Porter, chief executive of the HelpAge International.
The rate of poverty among elderly individuals are lacking in at least 93 nations. Shocking as it may sound, only 11 out of 54 countries in Africa were able to provide enough information. Much more is known in two of the world's richest countries, Norway and Luxembourg, than in the world's poorest, which is Burundi and Liberia.
The nations that rank high in the index are those that keep records of their aging population. They document relevant details about their elderly citizens and turn to them in meeting their goals of fulfilling the needs and enhancing the skills of their older men and women. Generally, the high-ranking countries fared well in the four key areas of assessment and their elderly have access to health care services, receive social pensions, are able to render flexible work and enrich their education as long as they live. These citizens are also able to live in a safe and supportive community, regardless of the residents' ages.
"Later this month, governments will be signing up to the UN Sustainable Development Goals," said [.docx] Porter. This will enhance commitment to universal targets until the year 2030. After Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general has set the "leave no one behind" undertaking, aging has started to rise as a significant part of the Sustainable Development Goals.
The Global AgeWatch Index can showcase the effects that enforcing Sustainable Development Goals will have on the lives of elderly people, but the missing gaps in the databases must be filled in to create a holistic impression. Improving the availability of data on different levels, detailing it by age and gender, will enhance the experts' knowledge about the status of worldwide aging.
Aside from the top-ranking Switzerland, included in the top 10 list are Norway (2), Sweden (3), Germany (4) Canada (5), Netherlands (6), Iceland (7), Japan (8), US (9), UK (10).
