Population ageing in the Caribbean: An inventory of policies, programmes and future challenges

The present study offers a demographic analysis of the ageing process in the Caribbean by presenting the development of selected indicators from the past to the present and projections into the future covering a time-span of 100 years from 1950 until 2050. The second part of the study provides an inventory of national and subregional policies and programmes in the areas of social security, pension schemes and welfare programmes as well as labour force participation and health. Further two regional initiatives to collect data on the socio-economic well-being as well as on the health conditions of the elderly are introduced. Finally the study identifies critical areas of major concern for policy makers, such as the need for more data and research and a thorough overhaul of existing policies and programmes. The assessment also calls for the design of new approaches to cope with the implications these dramatic changes in the age-structure are having on the lives of the entire populations in the subregion.