Latin America is heading for a period of rapid aging of its
population that will pressure its pension systems and economies in
coming years.
Following are some facts about the demographic shift, which is due
to sharply higher life expectancy and plunging birth rates spanning
a single generation.
- The share of Latin America's population over 65 will triple by
2050 to 18.5% from 6.3% in 2005, helping raise the median age to 40
from 26.
- That is not as rapid as some East Asian countries, but countries
such as Brazil, Chile and Mexico may have populations that are
older than the United States by mid-century.
- The ratio of working-age adults to each elderly person is on
course to sink to 5.7 by 2025 and to 3.1 by 2050, compared to 8.7
in 2005, in effect almost tripling the average burden on each
worker.
- Life expectancy in the region has increased by 22 years to 73.3
since the 1950s. Chileans had a life expectancy of 78.7 years in
2008, slightly higher than the United States.
- Fertility rates have plunged throughout the region. Mexico's rate
has fallen by two thirds since the 1970s to 2.2 births per woman,
around the same as the United States.
- Chile led a wave of pension reform in Latin America in the early
1980s, closing its pay-as-you-go public system and replacing it
with a system of fully-funded personal retirement accounts. About
10 countries in the region have introduced some variant of personal
accounts.
- Brazil, Latin America's largest economy, has maintained a public
system that eats up a third of government spending and has strained
public finances in recent years.
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