Impact of an Aging Population

Similarly to many economically developed countries, France’s population has been steadily aging over the past decade and people are now beginning to realize the impacts this could have. The combination of low fertility rate amongst French women (still below replacement level at 2.01) and high life expectancy (80 years old) has resulted in the up-flux of elderly. The elderly population in France accounts for around 19% of the total population and is projected to increase to over 30% in the next 30 years. The aging population has various impacts on France, both positive and negative, including increased negligence in elderly healthcare, economic impacts of France’s government, and pro-natalist initiatives.

Since the aging population in France is growing a a rapid pace, there has been a shortage of personnel and equipment to adequately care for the elderly. According to The Guardian, a nurse fence nurse named Michel Julien has said: "Residents require around the clock help … but our working conditions keep getting worse. This has direct consequences on the wellbeing of the residents.” One example of this neglect takes place in 2003 during a massive heat wave in France. This heat wave resulted in the death of 15,000 older persons because of social isolation, and a lack of experience in handling such heat waves, which led to dehydration and excessive sun exposure. This means that caretakers and other personnel were not aware of the steps that had needed to be taken to provide care during a heat wave or, even worse that elderly people were simply left completely alone because there was not enough services that could be provided. The shortage or specialized services and personnel for the elderly is therefore a negative impact of an aging population.

Although there is a shortage in the amount of elderly healthcare services, France is nonetheless providing this specialized healthcare to the best of its ability. It is estimated that France spends 11.6% of its GDP on healthcare (compared to the average 9.5%), and of that percentage an estimated 34 billion euros alone is spent on care for the elderly because specialized elderly healthcare is more expensive, 77% of which comes from the public sector. These figures show that France is dedicating a large sum of funds to elderly services which means there will be economic impacts. The older population also means France has to spend more euros on pensions. After World War II, France implemented a very generous pension program which allowed elderly to receive 75% of their final salary in total pension benefits, which is much larger than the average 50% in other developed countries. This means that France must pay very generous pensions to 19% of it population with only a small working population creating any revenue. Furthermore, the combination of expensive healthcare and a larger amount of mentions result in negative impacts due to an aging population.