ECLAC warns of the drastic demographic aging in Latin America
The executive secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean ( ECLAC ), José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, warned this Saturday in an interview with EFE that the region will experience a drastic aging process in the next 25 years, which will put unprecedented pressure on economies and care systems.
- By 2050, he explained, the number of adults over 60 will double and the number of those over 80 will triple.
Ahead of the upcoming Regional Conference on Women, to be held August 12-15 in Mexico City, Salazar-Xirinachs highlighted that currently, 15% of the regional population —approximately 98 million people—is over 60 years old.
By 2050, this group will represent 25% of the total, or 183 million people.
"One in four people will be older by 2050," he warned.
As for the group of those over 80 years of age, it will reach 37 million, a figure equivalent to the entire population of Colombia , according to Salazar-Xirinachs.
"We're going to have nearly 40 million people over the age of 80; that's the population of Colombia ," he said.
According to the executive secretary of ECLAC , this structural demographic change will cause the demand for care for older people to exceed that of children in Latin America .
"We are talking about a phenomenon that will directly impact the economic and social development of our countries," he stressed.
An economic opportunity if invested wellAlthough the situation represents a challenge , Salazar-Xirinachs insisted that it can also be an opportunity.
"If the necessary investments are made in care infrastructure, this will be one of the most dynamic sources of employment and quality jobs in the future," he asserted.
Especially for women, who currently undertake 75% of unpaid care work , which she described as an "injustice."
The secretary explained that the labor force participation gap between men and women averages 22 percentage points in the region.
"Closing that gap would mean millions of women entering the workforce , which would increase economic growth by several percentage points in the region's gross domestic product (GDP)," she said.
He also explained that boosting care systems can integrate diverse economic sectors , such as health, education, and social work, generating quality jobs for nurses, therapists, educators, and other professionals.
Salazar-Xirinachs acknowledged that there is no single model for addressing the challenge. Some countries, such as Brazil and Chile, are already making progress on legislative frameworks and national plans to create care networks .
In Mexico, she highlighted the creation of the Ministry of Women and recent legislation promoting a public care system , although she warned that financing will be one of the main obstacles.
In this regard, he said that " Latin American countries have high debt levels, and some governments are somewhat reluctant—rightly so—to take on more debt."
"Some progress can be made in legislation and other care policies that aren't very expensive, but care networks, which are essential, do have a cost," he added.
In this regard, he announced that ECLAC is in talks with organizations such as the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to create specific credit lines for care networks, similar to those already in place for traditional infrastructure.
"Just as there are loans from development banks for building roads, bridges, schools, and various social policies, why not have a specific line of credit ?" he questioned.
Mexico will be the epicenter of the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean in August, an event that will bring together more than 1,000 women from the region around an agenda that recognizes care as a right, a public good, and an economic driver. EFE
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