Within a decade, New Zealand will officially become a ” super-aged ” society, with more than one in five residents – around 1.2 million people – aged 65 or older.
Authors
- Mike Annear
Senior Lecturer, Department of Tourism, Sport & Society, Lincoln University, New Zealand
- Richard Keith Wright
Associate Professor in Sport Leadership & Management, Auckland University of Technology
- Sara Napier
Senior Lecturer in Health Sciences, Auckland University of Technology
Much of the debate about this profound demographic shift has focused on what it will mean for superannuation, hospitals, residential aged care and the workforce needed to support them.
But there’s another figure worth considering: more than 95% of New Zealanders aged over 65 currently live in private homes .
This means preparing for an ageing population requires as much attention to our houses, streets and neighbourhoods as it does to retirement villages and hospital beds.
Are footpaths easy to navigate? Can people get around without driving? Are shops, services and public spaces accessible? And do communities give older people opportunities to remain socially connected and involved?
Such questions are now becoming increasingly important – and there is already an international model for addressing them.
A World Health Organisation framework aims to make communities easier places to live as people grow older – from the design of streets, transport and housing to social participation, civic life and health services.
Yet, compared with many countries, New Zealand has been slower to embrace it.
Ageing doesn’t have to mean dependence
Falling fertility rates are one reason our population is ageing. But so too are longer lives and fewer premature deaths, reflecting decades of improvements in health care and living standards.
Seen this way, population ageing is a success story, despite the negative way it is often framed in media and politics.
We also shouldn’t automatically equate growing older with frailty or dependence. While health risks increase with age, nearly 60% of ill health among people aged 70 and over is linked to factors that can potentially be changed.
The environments people live and move within can make a significant difference.
Rather than relying only on individuals to remain active and connected as they age, communities can make those things easier – or harder – through planning decisions.
This is the thinking behind the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Age-friendly Cities and Communities framework .
It takes a broad approach to healthy ageing, addressing everything from accessible streets, transport and buildings to housing, social participation, civic engagement and health services.
The idea is to consider these areas together, rather than treating the needs of an ageing population simply as a bolt-on health or aged-care issue.
The framework also gives local governments practical guidance for making decisions and involving older residents in them, while connecting communities across the globe with examples of what has worked elsewhere.
Internationally, uptake has been considerable. Since 2010, 1,829 cities and communities representing more than 400 million people have joined the WHO’s global network.
New Zealand, however, has been comparatively slow to follow.
The Office for Seniors runs its own national age-friendly network as a WHO affiliate member, which now includes 36 communities at various stages of developing age-friendly policies and programmes.
But joining the WHO network requires a further formal commitment to the international framework. So far, only eight New Zealand communities , including Auckland, Hamilton and Napier have taken that step.
Progress among those involved has also been uneven, particularly when it comes to measuring whether age-friendly initiatives are actually working.
And notably absent from the framework are major centres such as Dunedin and Christchurch. The latter is among the oldest of New Zealand’s major cities, but has had little coordinated engagement despite the opportunity presented by its long-term earthquake rebuild.
There is considerable scope for New Zealand to do more.
Designing cities for all ages
Importantly, an age-friendly city is not a city designed only for older people.
Many of the features that make it easier to age well – accessible footpaths, reliable public transport and welcoming and easy-to-navigate public spaces – also make communities work better for people of different ages and abilities.
So, what should New Zealand be doing differently? Our research has identified several steps that could shift aspiration to action.
Local councils need to engage more with age-friendly initiatives and treat age-friendly design as a principle that cuts across urban development, transport and public services – both in new projects and when existing infrastructure is upgraded.
Policymakers and decision makers also need to commit to measurable targets. If we can’t measure progress towards becoming more age-friendly, how do we know it’s happening?
Urban planners need to create more opportunities for meaningful contact between generations through shared spaces, mixed housing and community activities.
This means recognising that older people contribute to the life and economy of our cities just as younger people do.
New Zealand’s super-aged future is not optional.
The choice is whether decision makers prepare for it by creating communities that help people remain capable, connected and engaged for longer – or wait until the pressures of an ageing population are already upon us.
