The significant majority in the minority: people aged 80 or older in the European Union

The significant majority in the minority: people aged 80 or older in the European Union - a growing demographic

The number of people aged 80 or older in the European Union is a growing demographic. In 2005 there were 20 million people aged 80 or over in Europe. In 2015 there were nearly 27 million. There has been an increase in the absolute number of aged people living in Europe, and their share of the total population – in nearly every EU Member State. This is an increase from 4% in 2005 to 5.3% in 2015 (Finchannel.com, 3 October 2016).

In general, southern EU Member States registered the highest proportion of elderly people – males and females. The highest proportion of people aged 80 or older in 2015 were in Italy (6.5% of their total population), followed by Greece (6.3% of their total population), Spain (5.9%), France (5.8%), Portugal (5.7%), with the lowest in Cyprus (3.1%) and Ireland and Slovakia (both at 3.1%).

Compared with 2005, people aged 80 or older rose by 2015 in every EU Member State except Sweden. The largest increase was in Greece – from 3.9% of their population in 2005 to 6.3% in 2015.

The ageing population is partly due to an increase in life expectancy, which added 1.5 years to an 80 year old’s life from 2005 to 2014. In 2005 people aged 80 were on average projected to live until 88.4 years. In 2014 people aged 80 were on average projected to live until 89.5 years.

In France, 80 year olds in 2014 could expect to live another 11 years – above the average rate, to 91 years of age, followed by people in Spain (10.4 years), Luxembourg (10.1 years), and Italy (10.0 years). At the opposite end of the scale, the lowest life expectancy for 80 year olds was in Bulgaria (7.0 years) to reach 87 years of age, Romania (7.6 years), Croatia (7.7 years), Hungary and Slovakia (both 7.9 years). On average there is a four year gap across the EU between the highest life expectancy and the lowest life expectancy.

Although the proportion of women aged 80 or older declined between 2005 and 2015, women still accounted for about 66% of elderly people in the EU. This means there are more women aged 80 or older than men of the same age – again, in nearly every EU Member State. By country, Cyprus had 58.9% of women aged 80 or older, in comparison with men of the same age, Greece (59.2%), Hungary (70.5%), Lithuania (73.4%), and Estonia (75.2%), with the greatest percentage in Latvia (75.9%).

Women aged 80 or over declined as a group from 2005 to 2015 with the most remarkable decline registered in Luxembourg – from 71.6% of the total people aged 80 or older in 2005 to 64.2% in 2015, which is a decline of 7.4%. Other countries with significant declining percentages of women aged 80 or over compared with men: Germany (7.2% decline), Austria (5.2% decline), Finland (5.3% decline), the United Kingdom (4.5% decline), and the Netherlands (4.4% decline).

Neverthess, women aged 80 or over are still the significant majority in the minority of all people over 80 in a country’s population. But the proportion of men aged 80 or over are catching up – by living longer too.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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