AARP: Disrupt Aging

Our goal at AARP is to help people 50-plus and their families confront their challenges and embrace their opportunities to the fullest extent possible.

The ability to lead longer, healthier lives is one of mankind’s greatest accomplishments. In 2000, there were already more people ages 60 and older than children age 5 and under, and by 2050, the world will have more people 60 and over than under 10. In 2012, 810 million people were ages 60 and older, accounting for 11.5 percent of the global population. That number is projected to reach 1 billion in less than 10 years and more than double to over 2 billion by 2050. Each day in the United States, 10,000 people turn 65 years old, and that trend will continue for the next 16 years.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has observed that “the social and economic implications of this phenomenon are profound, extending far beyond the individual older person and the immediate family, touching broader society and the global community in unprecedented ways.” And, it’s clear that the demographic trend is not going to change. Just 7 years ago, only 19 countries had a life expectancy at birth of 80 years or older. Today, more than 33 countries have reached that milestone. By 2050, 64 countries will join Japan with more than 30 percent of its population age 60 or older.

We can’t change those demographics, but we can change how we address the opportunities and challenges they present. When I became the CEO of AARP last September, I set out on a mission to “disrupt aging”—to change the conversation around what it means to grow older in today’s world; to recognize that it’s not really about aging, it’s about living.

Much of the conversation around aging today is focused on the challenges—the problems aging presents for individuals and societies. When I do an online search for the term “global aging,” I get articles with titles such as “World Not Ready for Global Aging,” “Global Ageing: A Billion Shades of Grey,” “The World Won’t be Aging Gracefully—Just the Opposite,” and “Global Aging and the Crisis of the 2020s.” Articles such as these treat demographics as destiny. They look at the growth in the older population and compare that with the current older population and conclude that population aging is a disaster in the making.

When I read these articles, I am reminded of what Edmund Burke wrote more than 200 years ago: “You can never plan the future by the past.” We may be able to predict the size of the older population in 10, 20, or 30 years fairly accurately based on reasonable assumptions, but we cannot predict what it will be like to be 60, 70, 80, or 90 in those years. There are too many unknowns. If nothing else, advances in health and technology demand that we look at the future through a different set of lenses. There is a new paradigm that is constantly changing.

This provides us with an opportunity to embrace aging as something to look forward to, not something to fear. “Disrupting Aging” means coming up with innovative ways of meeting the challenges older people face throughout the world, especially in developing countries, where much of the growth will occur.

- Jo Ann Jenkins | CEO, AARP

Read the full statement from AARP CEO Jo Ann Jenkins.

Watch 'Disrupt Aging' Around the World: A Conversation with OECD's Angel Gurria.

Share the Stakeholder Group on Ageing's policy brief Older Women Matter for Sustainable Development.