Meeting the Challenges Posed by an Aging Population



A dignified life must be assured to those who have filled abundant pages of achievements.

Santo Domingo – The necessary reforms of the social security system must be undertaken to ensure a decent pension for retirees and quality healthcare for the entire population.

Given the statement by Ricardo Hausmann, professor at Harvard University, in a recent conference in the country, that one of the gaps that the country has been closing in relation to developed nations is that Dominican families now have more workers per capita because they are smaller and have fewer children, some might think, without this being the intention of the renowned economist, that the condition of having small families is in itself beneficial for the development of a nation.

This is not the case.

The important thing is that family members have high productivity; That is, the human capital of the country is strengthened, not that there are fewer or more members.

If the family were more prominent, the more productive its members were, the better it would be.

According to the World Bank, “for future and inclusive growth, the Dominican Republic will require a greater increase in productivity through the implementation of reforms to strengthen human capital, competitiveness, innovation, efficiency in public spending and resilience against climate change.”

In this sense, one of the factors that is influencing the proportional growth of the elderly population in the Dominican Republic and Latin American countries is that, in addition to the increase in life expectancy, there is an irreversible trend of reduction in the natural rate, which which is causing more and more small families and a greater proportion of the elderly population.

The population over 60 years of age represented 4.4 percent of the total population in 1950, which increased to 8.6 percent in 2010 and 10.9 percent in 2020. It is estimated to reach 20 percent in 2050.

However, the Dominican Republic is not the country with the most pressing situation in this area.

In 2022, the proportion of older people in some countries and territories, mainly in the Caribbean, exceeded 20 percent and will exceed 30 percent in the next decade.

These are the cases, for example, of Guadeloupe, Martinique, Puerto Rico and Cuba.

However, this does not prevent the country from falling behind in the implementation of the necessary reforms of the Social Security System to guarantee a decent pension for retirees and quality health care for the entire population.

It is these reforms, plus the one that guarantees quality education to increase productivity, that will put the Dominican Republic in a better position to respond when the dependency ratio increases due to the persistent process of population aging.

This will contribute to the development of the country and dignify the Dominican people, guaranteeing a dignified life to those who have filled abundant pages of achievements.

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