Head of Welfare Organization warns: Elderly population growth is more than four times the country's population growth

Head of Welfare Organization warns: Elderly population growth is more than four times the country's population growth

🔸 The head of Iran's Welfare Organization says that currently 11 million elderly people live in Iran, accounting for 13 percent of the country's population.

🔸 Javad Hosseini on Wednesday, Mehr 8th, in a press conference on the eve of the International Day of Older Persons, warned that Iran is on the verge of entering the elderly period.

🔸 Countries where between 7 to 14 percent of their population is elderly are in the stage of entering old age. If Iran's elderly population reaches 14 to 21 percent of the population, the country will be considered aged.

🔸 The head of the Welfare Organization introduced Iran as one of the top five countries in the world in terms of the rate of elderly population growth, and said that the country's population growth is 1.24 percent and the elderly population growth is 4.48 percent; "Therefore, the growth rate of the elderly population is more than four times the growth of the country's total population."

🔸 Hosseini added that it is predicted that between the years 1420 and 1422, the country's demographic window will close and the number of elderly people will surpass the young population.

🔸 According to this report, 60 percent of the elderly are not covered by pensions, meaning that out of every 10 elderly people in Iran, six are not covered by pensions, and furthermore, by passing the age of 70, the income status of the elderly decreases; "So that the average income decile of 60 to 70-year-olds is 5.76 and the average income decile of people over 70 is four, and these people are moving towards poverty."

🔸 Among other statistics presented by this senior official of the Welfare Organization is the experience of mental anxiety about aging by 65 percent of the elderly, alongside physical and financial concerns, as well as an 18 percent rate of non-elderly individuals involved in caring for the elderly; "Meaning that for every one hundred elderly people, 18 non-elderly individuals are involved in caring for them."

🔸 The presented statistics also show that 9 percent of the elderly suffer from a specific disease, and 50 percent of the elderly pension recipients of the Welfare Organization also have severe and very severe disabilities.