Longevity and Social Transformation: Keys to a Necessary Conversation for Understanding the Future

A lengthy interview was recently published between Juan Martín, director of CENIE, and José Pedro Martín, director of the Center for Innovation in Professional Offices. Over two hours of open and calm conversation, they analyze the profound changes that longevity introduces into our societies.

 

CENIE wishes to express its gratitude to the Center for Innovation in Professional Offices for this collaborative opportunity. With more than 330,000 subscribers to its video blog, its platform is a reference space for rigorous and accessible dissemination on innovation, social transformation, and future trends. Its commitment to editorial quality has allowed this conversation to reach a broad and diverse audience.
 

 

 

A central gap: living longer does not always mean living better

 

The dialogue begins with an observation that is widely cited but still insufficiently acknowledged: Spain is one of the countries with the highest life expectancy in the world, surpassing 84 years (INE). However, healthy life expectancy is around 61 years (EUROSTAT), meaning that a very significant portion of aging is lived with limitations or loss of autonomy.

 

This mismatch lies at the core of the work that CENIE develops in projects such as IBERLONGEVA, aimed at identifying the early stages of physical, cognitive, and social frailty. The research carried out in Zamora, Ourense, and Bragança makes it possible to move toward a more precise understanding of when deterioration begins and which community-based and preventive interventions can delay or even reverse it.

 

Reorienting the healthcare system toward prevention

 

The interview delves into the need to rethink the healthcare system, traditionally organized around illness. It emphasizes introducing a third pillar alongside primary and hospital care: prevention. This approach aligns fully with CENIE’s focus, which is working on the development of indicators and predictive models to anticipate risks of frailty.

 

The developments carried out within the framework of a Health and Longevity Observatory help integrate information on physical function, lifestyle habits, cognitive status, emotional well-being, and social environment, generating an evidence base to guide public policies aimed at prolonging autonomy among older people.

 

A new life structure: longevity and reinvention

 

The conversation also addresses a deep cultural shift: longevity challenges the traditional life sequence—education, employment, retirement—that shaped life throughout much of the 20th century. The increase in life expectancy and the acceleration of technological change fragment life trajectories into multiple stages, forcing society to rethink lifelong learning, labor transitions, and flexibility in work and retirement.

 

CENIE has spent years analyzing these phenomena from a multidisciplinary perspective, exploring intergenerationality, new learning environments, and the transformation of professional identities in societies with longer life cycles.

 

Undesired loneliness: a major social challenge

 

One of the most significant parts of the conversation focuses on undesired loneliness, a phenomenon that is increasing across all ages but takes on particularly complex forms in old age. The interview includes concrete examples from research conducted in the city of Zamora, where CENIE has studied loneliness in depth and promoted community-based interventions with positive results.

 

This work shows that loneliness is not merely the absence of contact but the loss of meaningful ties, social invisibility, and the progressive erosion of community. Rebuilding social life—through meeting spaces, shared activities, and intergenerational relationships—emerges as a central component of healthy aging.

 

The longevity economy: a structural opportunity

 

The conversation devotes a key section to the longevity economy, an area in which CENIE has developed pioneering studies. In Spain, household spending by those over 50 represents a decisive share of economic activity, far greater than sectors traditionally considered strategic. People over 50 are also those who travel the most, spend the most when they do, show greater financial stability, and hold most of the country’s wealth.

 

This perspective breaks with the reductionist view of old age as a stage associated exclusively with dependency or social expenditure. Longevity, on the contrary, opens opportunities in sectors such as tourism, professional care, housing, social innovation, and technology focused on autonomy.

 

Financial well-being: beyond income

 

The interview also explores subjective financial well-being, a key concept that CENIE develops with experts in behavioral economics. It is not only about income or wealth, but about the perception of security, calm, and the ability to face the future. Here, the conversation discusses the sustainability of pension systems, the importance of automated saving, and the need to design economic policies that take into account people’s behavioral biases.
CENIE’s studies on financial well-being examine precisely how these perceptions are formed, and which social, economic, and cultural factors influence financial peace of mind throughout the life cycle.

 

Territory and longevity: a renewed perspective

 

Another important theme is the role of territory in aging. The interview suggests that many rural, semi-urban, or low-density areas present conditions that could be considered genuine “territories of well-being”: safer environments, calmer rhythms of life, closer social networks, and significantly lower stress levels than in large cities.

 

These reflections connect directly with the DEMO·GRAFO project, where CENIE works on integrating territorial, demographic, and well-being data to understand how different habitats support—or hinder—health and quality of life throughout aging. This line of work opens new perspectives on return policies, mobility, and territorial rebalancing.

 

Biotechnology, ethics, and equity

 

The interview does not avoid fundamental issues such as access to innovations in biotechnology, advances in aging medicine, or the need to ensure that longer life does not generate new inequalities. These reflections align with CENIE’s agenda in forums such as Age Open Science, which examines the relationship between science, longevity, equity, and universal access.

 

Happiness and meaning in long-lived societies

 

The dialogue concludes with a reflection on happiness that goes beyond the usual question and enters essential dimensions of subjective well-being: purpose, bonds, inner serenity, and the ability to maintain a generous and balanced perspective on one’s own life. These themes form part of CENIE’s work on emotional well-being and quality of life, which seeks to understand how people build meaning across increasingly long-life stages.

 

The interview offers a broad, solid, and humanistic overview of the main challenges and opportunities posed by longevity. Its value lies not only in the clarity with which the topics are presented, but also in the connection with the projects that CENIE promotes to understand and accompany these changes.

 

Always from an evidence-based perspective, attentive to the diversity of experiences and committed to fostering cohesive, equitable, and healthy long-lived societies.

 

CENIE will continue promoting spaces for dialogue and rigorous dissemination that help advance toward a comprehensive understanding of longevity as a social, economic, and human opportunity.

 

 

Watch full interview on the link.