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An elderly crisis and a youth crisis: South Korea’s got it all
With around a quarter of its population older than 60, Japan has rightly earned its rep for having the worst demographic crises in the world. But just to its north, there’s one that threatens to be...
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Is importing Malawians to take unskilled jobs a fix for South Korea’s ageing...
South Korea has way too many old people—and that problem, as we’ve written, is only getting worse. It needs workers to support these seniors. But at its current birthrate, it’s not churning out enough...
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Thailand’s joining Japan and Korea as one of the “old men” of Asia
The latest news on Thailand’s economy has been grim. Not only did the country enter a recession (paywall) in the second quarter of this year, but it increasingly faces the twin specters of rising...
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Southeast Asia is becoming China’s version of Florida for retirees
Since last year in China, people have been retiring faster new workers are entering the workforce. Fourteen percent of the population is now at least 60 years old, and at this pace, China’s total...
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Why the girl-power blockbuster “Frozen” is the most popular movie to hit...
Frozen, the Disney cartoon-musical that swept the US in late 2013 and early 2014 only arrived in Japan in mid-March. And since then, it’s completely taken over the country. It’s still the No. 1 movie...
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Japanese deaths outnumbered births by almost 300,000 last year
The numbers: The number of births in Japan is estimated to be just 1.001 million in 2014, the lowest on record for the fourth consecutive year. The number of deaths in the same period is thought to be...
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Danes have promised their government to have more sex
This post has been corrected. Keen to boost its falling birthrate, the people of Denmark have agreed to have more sex. Rather, the residents of one Danish region have promised the local government that...
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Bollywood actresses no longer fear their 30s—or playing mothers onscreen
Bollywood actresses used to have short shelf lives, compared to their male co-stars. India’s film industry is replete with instances of top actresses suddenly been relegated to minor, maternal roles,...
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Charting Europe’s demographic time bomb
Fewer, older, greyer. This is Europe’s future. The EU’s immediate economic problems are legion, but looming large is a long-term demographic crunch that makes today’s setbacks look tame by comparison....
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Scientists want to treat aging like a disease—and they already have drugs for it
Certain viruses cause disease, so we have created vaccines as a preventative measure against them. Similarly, it is clear that aging causes disease. But while pharmacy shelves are packed with...
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A generation from now, most of the world’s GDP will come from Asia
Goodbye, Italy and Russia. By 2050, the world’s 10 largest economies will include new powers like Mexico and Indonesia, according to a new report from the Economist Intelligence Unit (paywall)....
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A long and painful goodbye to my dying grandparents
In July, I made my annual pilgrimage to Kottayam in the southern Indian state of Kerala to see my ageing grandparents. They have aged dramatically since I had seen them last. It wasn’t just creaking...
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Britain is the best place to die
Britain may not be the best place to live, but it is the best place to die. The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) ranked the country first in its latest quality-of-death index, which uses 20...
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Raghuram Rajan on the dangers of the rich getting richer
India’s central banker Raghuram Rajan believes income inequality across the world is stalling demand. “Perhaps the movement of income towards high-income people has in fact reduced demand,” the Reserve...
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India is the worst place in the world to retire
India’s pension system is broken, and retirement is a rough ride in Asia’s third largest economy. According to the 2015 Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index, India ranks last among 25 countries when...
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Masculinity and privilege are killing older white men—no, really
One of the constant findings in suicide studies is that the majority of victims are older white men. Data from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention shows that in 2014, men accounted for 77.4%...
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A 101-year-old woman can play Broadway tunes by ear but can’t remember where...
A 101-year-old American woman rarely knows who she is. She struggles to remember recent memories and isn’t always aware of her surroundings. But she can still play nearly 400 songs on the piano by ear...
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Saving money isn’t the only thing you need to do to prepare for retirement
Most people don’t realize until it’s too late, but the hardest thing about saving for retirement is deciding what to do after you quit working. Retirees must figure out how much they can spend, leaving...
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The math behind Trump’s growth plan suggests record levels of US seniors...
Donald Trump has made a lot of big promises. Among the most ambitious is his vow to “create 25 million new American jobs in the next decade and return to 4% annual growth.” That’s a lot of jobs to...
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Parenting may drive you crazy, but it will also make you live longer
Whether or not you have kids, you’ve probably heard of the parenting happiness gap. According to this widely documented phenomenon, having kids makes you significantly less happy than if you didn’t...
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Brazil’s demographic nightmare is just beginning
After enduring the worst recession in its history, Brazil finally seems to be finding its footing. There’s one problem it won’t as easily outrun, though. Its ranks of elderly are growing way faster...
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South Korea is aging faster than any other developed country
For the first time ever, South Korea has more old people than young people. The latest census statistics from the government show that the number of elderly people in Korea, defined as those aged over...
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Smiling in your photos sends the wrong message to the very people you want to...
The next time someone tells you to smile for the camera, feel free to frown and respectfully decline. While conventional wisdom holds that a teeth-baring grin makes you appear more attractive, research...
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The real way to work out your pet’s age
“Just how old do you think my dog is in dog years?” is a question I hear on a regular basis. People love to anthropomorphize pets, attributing human characteristics to them. And most of us want to...
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The real trick to staying young forever
People are living longer today. But how do we make sure those extra years are good ones? For people in wealthy countries, it’s a question of increasing urgency. In 2019, for the first time ever, there...
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For skincare brands, urban pollution is good for business
Big Beauty has been all about skincare lately, and that part of the industry is thriving, thanks in large part to its ballooning anti-aging category. But another category of skincare might be the next...
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The stigma around retirement communities is slowly fading in India
For Alakananda Bhattacharya, a 37-year-old freelance writer in Delhi, ageing is not a “favourite subject to think about.” She avoids it fervidly, but when her thoughts do turn to the inevitable, they...
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Indians look forward to old age way more than anyone else
It may be called the “sunset years” or the “twilight of our lives,” but most Indians look forward to their old age. Only about a quarter of Indians expressed a lack of enthusiasm for their retirement...
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Indian women are finding a silver lining in their grey hair
“If the woman wishes to have long and black hair, take a green lizard and having removed its head and tail, cook it in common oil. Anoint the head with the oil,” advises The Trotula, a medieval...
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