United Nations DESA Programme on Ageing

Focal point on ageing in the United Nations system

As the focal point on ageing in the United Nations system, the primary action of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs Programme on Ageing is to facilitate and promote the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing, including: designing guidelines for policy development and implementation; advocating means to mainstream ageing issues into development agendas; engaging in dialogue with civil society and the private sector; and information exchange.

Permanent Co-Chair of the United Nations Inter-Agency Group on Ageing

Building on and leveraging existing and relevant United Nations led initiatives, the objectives of the United Nations Inter-Agency Group on Ageing are to exchange information; address population ageing, older persons and their human rights in the work programmes of all United Nations entities; ensure linkages with other relevant United Nations inter-agency bodies; and stimulate inter-agency collaboration on ageing-related topics including on the advocacy for better and improved data on social and economic outcomes of ageing populations.

Ageing at a Glance

Global Ageing is unprecedented, pervasive and enduring.

Three things are happening at once: people are living longer lives; older persons are making up a growing share of the population; and the total number of older persons is rising rapidly.

Country realities may look very different today. Some populations are still young and growing fast. Others are already ageing rapidly, with very low fertility and, in some cases, shrinking populations. But these are not separate futures. They are different stages of the same demographic transition: longer lives, smaller families and a steady shift toward older age structures.

That is what makes it unprecedented, pervasive and enduring: unprecedented because it has no parallel in human history; pervasive because it touches every country and every sector; and enduring because it will define the decades ahead.