According to estimates by demographers, the number of those who exceed sixty years of age in 2050 will overtake the number of individuals belonging to age groups that are below twenty, worldwide. This hypothesis is plausible if considered at the global level, but actual numbers may depart from it between one region and another. If correct, this hypothesis will profoundly alter many economic realities. While individuals are normally consumers in various phases of their lives, they are only productive in one of these phases, conventionally agreed to be the one between age twenty and sixty four in general. This means that the people active in this phase of their lives [financially] support all the other age groups of the population pyramid, without factoring in the number of the unemployed whatever the reasons may be. On top of the dilemmas caused by the global financial crisis, and the debilitating economic recession, there are the issues of social security: In order to achieve a decent level of social security, several United Nations organizations offer financial contributions and aid provided by donor countries, assisted by NGOs, in addition to the efforts by the United Nations itself to push forward the Millennium Development Goals that have special emphasis on children, mothers and education (but not on the elderly). Meanwhile, developed countries invoke the welfare system to end the services of those who exceeded sixty or sixty-four years of age. Some of these countries even went as far as lowering the retirement age to sixty, or sixty-two. However, the global financial crisis and its ensuing costs forced many countries to increase the retirement age which they had previously lowered. The outstanding issue, however, is to specify the criteria for determining the retirement age in light of the demographic changes ahead. Meanwhile, a Green Paper issued by the European Commission divides the elderly into three categories: one for those aged between 55 and 64, then the senior citizens who are aged between 65 and 79 and then those who are older (above eighty years). These groups, which had been hitherto marginal in terms of [belonging to] the productive populace, are in fact ready to play an advanced economic role, beginning with the financial burdens produced by the various pension funds, and ending with their ability to be productive amid the climate of falling birth rates and the decline of "active" or productive age groups. This is while also considering what the elderly can engender in terms of a revolution in the production of goods specially designed for this population segment, and in line with their social, cultural, financial and health conditions. The average life expectancy, which is the expected number of years of life for a newborn, has evolved during the past half century, as a result of advancements in medicine and in the universal access to health services, and the improvements in the standards of living. In parallel, the "youth" rate also increased and now exceeds the threshold of sixty or sixty four years of age. The good overall health of those considered to be in old age suggests that they may still be benefited from in many fields, where younger generations may be lacking in skills and competence otherwise accumulated by older generations over the years. The European classifications places two important aspects of old age in juxtaposition: By comparing those active to those who are not, on the one hand, and the extent at which the elderly have relatives who can care for them, on the other hand. However, the first aspect seems to be more important. In a comparison between those who are 15 to 64 years old, with those who are over sixty-five, it is clear that the active age group will fall from 4 to 2 in 2050 in Europe, from 10 to 4 and 3 in Asia and Latin America respectively, from 5 to 3 in North America, from 6 to 3 in Oceania, and from 18 to 9 in Africa. This comparison means that those over 60 will represent 21 percent in 2040 instead of 11 percent (this year), and will overtake the number of those who are below twenty by 2050. Old age affects most of the developed countries where in Japan, 30 percent of the population is considered in old age, while it is 26 percent in Germany and Italy, and emerging countries are catching up quickly. In 2050, one in four will have gone over the age of sixty, i.e. a quarter of the population in Asia and Latin America, and one in ten in Africa. In China, the ratio will increase from 12 to 31 percent in 40 years. Demographers are in agreement that the most important cause for this demographic change in the structure of the age pyramid of the world population may primarily be attributed to the advancement of medicine and the increase in life expectancy. There is also the decline in birth rates for many reasons, most importantly the education of girls, women's liberation and women's entry into the labor market. The migration of young people in many countries also led to serious demographic disequilibrium, whether in exporting or recipient countries. The most serious disequilibrium usually manifests itself in the labor market. Wherever birth rates decrease, the labor market becomes highly deficient, as is the case in Germany, and this is offset by immigrants. Also, countries with young populations lose the active segments this way, in particular educated and skilled individuals, when they emigrate. At any rate, some immigration waves chart a return journey, just like migratory birds, as was the case with emerging countries such as India and other nations in Asia, which economically benefited from its emigrants after they came back to work there. Similarly, developed countries are seeking to exploit the experiences of those who are over the retirement age.
