Long-lived Societies

Longevity is one of the greatest achievements of our societies. A long-cherished goal in the history of mankind, which today we have turned into a happy, growing and promising reality. Giving more years to life has been the fruit of sustained improvements in public health, nutrition, health and education. But such an achievement will only achieve its full meaning if we are able to see it as a stage full of possibilities, of new and exciting opportunities.

The emergence of long-lived societies highlights the need to go beyond the consideration of a society focused on changes in the age structure of the population. Achieving an adequate response to a long-lived society requires substantial changes in the life course and in social norms, greater attention to healthy life expectancy, and ensuring an intergenerational evaluation of the policies to be developed with the aim of favoring a fair and sustainable generational coexistence for the entire population.

A long-lived society represents a new stage for humanity and requires questioning deep-rooted notions about age and the life cycle so that society can make the most of the additional time that longevity brings.

In this demographic context, training will have to be permanently present throughout our lives, providing us with the skills and abilities required by a constantly changing environment. Working life will have to be endowed with a flexibility, variety and meaning very different from those of the past, with continuous work transitions, whether desired or not, and within the framework of a society that is more intergenerational than ever.

And retirement should not necessarily mean a definitive withdrawal from the productive and social sphere, but rather a new way of continuing to enrich ourselves as people, contributing the best of each of us to the society that welcomes us and needs us, and preserving the associated social rights, both in terms of quality and economic sustainability over time.

To learn more about this topic, we invite you to visit the sections in this section, where you will find information, studies, research and expert opinions that will help you to better understand the reality of this new and exciting paradigm.