Identification of the Best Societal Measurement of Healthy Aging

Michel, Jean Pierre

Abstract

Almost six decades after the first proposals to define and evaluate the quality of individual aging, the first indexes for assessing the aging process at the societal level have appeared. Moreover, in five years, three different scores for measuring societal aging have been developed and tested in different areas. The Global AgeWatch Index focused on 96 countries from around the world, while the Active Ageing index is limited to the European Union countries and the Ageing Society Index targets Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries. This paper analyzed and compared the results of these three indexes. The rankings vary little at the bottom end of the scale, with the same countries consistently ranked among the lowest scores (for example, Poland ranked last among the European countries in the three indexes). The same is true at the top of the rankings, with Sweden, the Netherlands, and Ireland consistently among the high-scoring countries. However, the three indices tend to differently rank the countries in the middle. The United States, for example, is ranked ninth in the Global Age Watch 2015 and third in the Ageing Societal Index 2018. In cases in which the results are not consistent, it is difficult for politicians and policymakers to adequately identify needs and orient the policy to promote active and healthy aging. There is clearly a compelling need for wide-scale debate to reach a consensus on a comprehensive score or index at the societal level.