It’s good to be old in Italy

Istat (National Statistics Bureau of Italy) recently announced that Italy has the oldest population in Europe and the second oldest in the world after Japan. For every ten people aged 15 and under, there are 14 aged over 65, or in other words one person in four is aged over 60.

The reasons for this include low birthrate – 1.35 children per family, and ever increasing life expectancies – 88.8 years for women and 83.3 for men. It’s a good life for our third agers. They are respected, get discounts at restaurants, are given priority in supermarket queues, and most get a state pension that exceeds the salary of many wage earners.

We are surrounded by our older generations and there are pros and cons to this. On the plus side our children grow up knowing their grandparents and often great grandparents. My niece and nephew have three great grandmothers, and this means free childcare for my sister and a wonderful chance for the children.

On the other hand the skewed age distribution is a ticking economic time bomb as the working population struggle to pay pension. Many criticise third agers for not wanting to relinquish power they hold in government and private business. Interestingly the leader of the Senate is 74 years old, the President is 82, and 36 % members of the lower house of Parliament are over 60 years. Critics say that law making often is about safeguarding the interests of this older generation and it is true that presently the senior citizens in Italy are the privileged generation. It’s no wonder that Italians who emigrated often declare, ‘When I get old and retire, I will be moving back to Italy.”

As far as health care is concerned, Italy ranks among the World Health Organization’s top 10 countries for quality health services which provides for hospital and medical benefits for free for the elderly. And let’s not forget those Italian pensions which for now are considered untouchable by any of the political parties that fear alienating the largest single group in the electorate

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 16th, 2009 at 12:46 am and is filed under tradition. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.