The implications of population ageing for social policy

The UK population is ageing steadily, with over-65s projected to make up a quarter of the population by 2050. The number of people aged over 90 is growing, as well as the number of centenarians. And older generations are becoming more ethnically diverse.

While life expectancy in the UK has broadly increased, healthy life expectancy has not kept pace. This means many people are living longer in poor health. Moreover, ageing is not uniform: inequalities in health outcomes and access to services by gender, ethnicity, geography, and socioeconomic status shape how people experience later life. For example:

• Pakistani and Bangladeshi women in their 50s report health outcomes similar to White British women in their 80s
• coastal and rural areas are ageing more rapidly than cities

This is because ageing is strongly influenced by the ‘social determinants of health’, or the conditions in which we live (including the quality of our education and housing, and our level of income).

This page gives an overview of the implications of population ageing for policy on health and social care, housing, pensions, and education.

Health and social care

Older people tend to have more, and more complex, care needs, as they are more likely to live with one or more chronic conditions. An increase in the proportion of older people therefore means increased demand on the NHS and adult social care. This translates, for example, into long waiting times across GPs, hospital clinics and accident and emergency departments, difficulties discharging patients from hospitals, and high levels of unmet social care needs. Unpaid carers pick up some of these social care needs, and many older people, especially women, are also unpaid carers.

The budget for the Department of Health and Social Care is the largest of all government departments and it is likely to continue growing. The NHS 10 Year Plan acknowledges the pressures that population ageing places on healthcare services and spending, and proposes shifting healthcare policy:

• from hospitals to the community
• from analogue to digital
• from treatment to prevention

Some warn that homecare technology may not bring all its promised efficiency gains. However, a greater focus on prevention aligns with evidence that early health outcomes and interventions – from childhood onwards – have strong effects on how we age.

There are workforce challenges in the NHS and social care, with a high number of vacancies, high turnover and high levels of stress. Reasons for this include low pay and a lack of progression in some roles, changes to visa rules and international recruitment policies, and work-life balance issues, especially for the increasing number of older employees.

Housing and the built environment

Many people do not consider how ageing will affect their ability to live in their homes until they have to, and most people wish to remain in their homes even when it may no longer suit their needs. There is a shortage of affordable, accessible housing for older people and housing options for older people are poorly understood, with inconsistent terminology and little support for decision-making. This means that many older people continue to live in large family homes with higher energy costs, more potential trip hazards and one or more unused bedrooms. Additionally, many neighbourhoods and cities are not designed around the needs of older people, although in recent decades the ‘age-friendly cities’ movement has gained influence.

While most older people are owner-occupiers, an increasing number of pensioners are living in private rented accommodation, which means their housing is more expensive and less secure. Older private renters are more likely to live in homes with cold, damp, and health and safety issues. Living in unsuitable housing can contribute to falls, hospital admissions, and social isolation.

Across all age groups, living in poor-quality housing can negatively affect people’s health, which can result in poorer health later in life.

The government’s Older People’s Housing taskforce reported in November 2024 with a range of recommendations for improving housing for older people.

Pensions and financial security

Population ageing means more people are drawing their State Pension, with fewer people making National Insurance contributions. The Office for Budget Responsibility found that the ‘triple lock’, which guarantees that the State Pension increases in line with the highest of inflation, earnings growth or 2.5%, means public spending on pensions is growing substantially.

Meanwhile, State Pension payments are not high enough on their own to give people a comfortable or even modest retirement. The Pensions Commission was launched on 21 May 2025 and is expected to report in 2027. It was set up in recognition of the fact that, despite the introduction of automatic workplace pension enrolment in 2012, many people are still not saving enough in private and workplace pensions to avoid a decline in living standards, or poverty, in old age, and future pensioners are projected to be worse off than current pensioners.

Particular groups are more likely to have inadequate pensions savings, including women, people from certain minority ethnic groups, and self-employed people. Often, the people who are not saving enough are on low incomes with little money to spare, and research suggests that societal norms shape differences in how men and women choose to invest for retirement.

The increase in private renting among pensioners noted above poses a particular challenge, as high renting costs require a substantially higher retirement income.

Education, from the early years to lifelong learning

Education is one of the ‘social determinants’ of healthy ageing. Early investment in learning and family support helps to achieve better outcomes in later life.

With high and rising levels of child poverty, the government is attempting to mitigate some childhood inequalities through schools, including through providing supervised tooth-brushing, free school meals and free breakfast clubs. Initiatives around funding for childcare and family hubs also aim to address the substantial disadvantages some children face.

Population ageing is not only driven by increased life expectancy, but also by falling birth rates. Schools face decreasing numbers of pupils, which could have severe implications for their funding. Meanwhile, schools may not systematically teach children about financial planning, including for later life.

With people living and working longer, there may also be greater demand for education later in life. However, over-60s can currently only access limited maintenance support, and the Lifelong Learning Entitlement, to be introduced from 2027, will end tuition fee loan entitlement for this group, potentially restricting opportunities for midlife retraining. Cuts to adult education may affect opportunities for older people to stay mentally active.

Integrated policy approaches

Research on ageing often uses the life course perspective, recognising how experiences from early childhood and throughout life shape health outcomes in later life. New insights in intersectionality in ageing, or how different characteristics interact to shape how we age, raise questions about the design and delivery of social policy for an increasingly diverse older population. Combined with the recognition that health, including in later life, is shaped by various socioeconomic factors (the social determinants of health), this has led some to call for a more integrated approach to policy on healthy ageing, for example by:

• focusing on poverty, housing and children and young people
• integrating health, social care and planning policies
• establishing a commissioner for older people and ageing
• developing a cross-departmental strategy on demographic change and ageing