Almost 630,000 persons aged 60 or over lived in Moldova at the start of 2018. This is 17.7% of the stable population. About 60% of the elderly people are women, while 56.6% live in rural areas. Each third person is aged between 60 and 64, while 13.2% are older than 80. The data were presented by the National Bureau of Statistics in connection with the International Day of Older Persons celebrated on October 1, IPN reports.
According to the Bureau, the elderly people aged under 69 prevail in urban areas, while those older than 70 prevail in rural areas. The number of persons aged 60 or over is constantly on the rise. In 2017, the population ageing coefficient was by 0.5 percentage points higher than a year before. In 2016, the population ageing coefficient in urban areas for the first time exceeded the population ageing coefficient in urban areas and the tendency continued in 2017.
The ratio of boys to girls at birth in 2017 was 106 : 100, while among persons aged 60 or over this ratio was 67 : 100. Currently, the average length of life of women who turned 60 was 20.5, while of men was 16.4. The life expectancy of elderly people in urban areas was by 2.6 years higher than in rural areas. The death rate among elderly men is higher than among elderly women.
The circulatory and digestive system diseases are the major cause of death among the elderly. In 2017, the death rate among elderly people decreased. There were about 45 deaths on average among 1,000 persons aged 60 and over, the death rate among the elderly being higher in rural areas - 52 deaths per 1,000 people, as opposed to 36 deaths per 1,000 people in urban areas - and among men - 53 deaths per 1,000 people among men, as against 40 deaths among women of the given age.
The number of elderly people worldwide rises faster than of persons from other age categories. In 2017, about 962 million persons were aged 60 or over, which is 13% of the global population. The people aged 60 or over increase in number by about 3% a year and Europe has the largest population aged 60 or over.
