Warning from the head of the Welfare Organization: Growth of the elderly population 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, which is equivalent to 13 percent of the country’s population.

🔸Javad Hosseini, on Wednesday, October 8, [in the Iranian calendar], said in a press conference on the eve of World Elderly Day that Iran is on the threshold of entering the period of aging.

🔸Countries whose elderly population makes up between 7 and 14 percent of their population are in the stage of entering old age. If Iran’s elderly population reaches 14 to 21 percent of the population, the country would no longer be considered young and would be considered an aging country.

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

🔸Hosseini added that it is expected that between the years 1420 and 1422, the country’s demographic window will close and the number of elderly will overtake the young population.

🔸Based on this report, 60 percent of elderly people are not covered by an allowance, meaning that out of every 10 elderly people in Iran, six are not covered by an allowance. In addition, after passing the age of 70, the income status of the elderly declines; “so that the average income decile of people aged 60 to 70 is 5.76, and the average income decile of people over 70 is four, and these people are moving toward poverty.”

🔸Among other figures presented by this senior official of the Welfare Organization, there is also the experience of mental concern about aging among 65 percent of elderly people, alongside physical and financial concerns, as well as an 18 percent rate of non-elderly people being involved in caring for the elderly; “that is, for every one hundred elderly people, 18 non-elderly individuals are involved in caring for them.”

🔸The figures also show that 9 percent of the elderly suffer from a particular disease, and 50 percent of elderly allowance recipients of the Welfare Organization have severe and very severe disabilities.