Socio-economic characteristics of the elderly population in Romania

Europe is currently facing the highestageing rate worldwide. Romania,a EU-member country since 2007 has to cope with its own demographicdifficulties, e.g. an overall population decline, an increased proportion ofelderly and a longer average life-span, a majority of female elderly, etc. Theageing process had a progressive course, which began in the latter half of the20th century, particularly in the countryside, where certainsettlements appeared to be at greater demographic risk. The situation had alsosignificant socio-economic implications. In 2012, people aged 60 and overrepresented 22% of Romania’s population, with 25.5% living in the village and 19%in town. According to forecasts, the nest few decades will witness a rapid andmassive growth of elderly people, from 4.5 million in 2012 to 6.5 million in2050. As the elderly category, mostly retired and inactive, puts greaterpressure on the active adults, social and economic problems become ever moreacute, given that the existing pensions system cannot adequately sustain theolder population; besides, neither is the health-care system ready to meet theincreasing demands of this ever larger category. It follows that Romania shouldtake the necessary steps now and start adjusting to these issues in order toavoid the risk of endemic poverty among elderly people. In view of it, acoherent medium-and-long-term development programme should be elaborated,capable to rebalance the demographic structure and solve many of the problemsassociated to ageing.The present study takes an in-depthlook at all these issues and highlights regional disparities.