Britain facing mid-life crisis

Picture a country filled with greyhaired people reminiscing about iPods, The Streets, high-speed broadband and Smart Cars — this is Britain in 2031.

By then, according to a new report by the Office of National Statistics, the
average Briton will be 43 years old.

Our average age has already risen from 34 in 1971 to 38 in 2002 as a result of
fewer children being born and a decline in mortality rates.

Today, there are fewer under-16s and more people aged over 65 than ever.

In 1971, 25 per cent of the population was aged under 16. This fell to 20 per
cent in 2002 and is projected to fall to just 17 per cent in 2031.

Meanwhile, people aged 65 and over increased from 13 per cent in 1971 to 16
per cent in 2002 and the number is projected to rise to 25 per cent by 2031.

The figures will provide ammunition for those in favour of Government
proposals to raise the retirement age to 70 to fight the tax burden of an elderly population. In Japan, the world’s fastest ageing society, a quarter of people are expected to be 65 or over by 2015.

Problems are already presenting themselves, with the cost of healthcare
increasing by billions of yen annually as the working population decreases.

Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi said an ageing society was the
single biggest problem facing the country.

The ONS report, called Why Is The UK Population Growing?, found Britons had
increased from 50.3million in 1951 to more than 59million today.

By 2031, the population is estimated to rise to 64.8million. Migration would be
an ‘increasingly important factor’ in the rise, the report said.