Aging World: Top 10 Countries by Share of Population Aged 65+, 2025
How rapidly ageing societies are reshaping the global population pyramid
Globally, just over one in ten people are now aged 65 or above, and this share is projected to roughly double over the coming decades as longevity rises and fertility falls. The change is highly uneven: some high-income economies already have more than 30% of their population in the 65+ group, while many low-income countries remain demographically young.
In this article we focus on the countries with the highest 65+ shares, show how they compare in a Top-10 league table, and place them in the broader context of a Top-100 ranking used across StatRanker’s population section.
All figures are intended for analytical comparison rather than as an official statistical release. Values are rounded and harmonised across sources (UN World Population Prospects, World Bank and related datasets) to ensure consistency across countries and over time.
Table 1. Top 10 countries by share of population aged 65+, 2025 (latest data)
Countries with the largest proportion of older adults, based on UN population estimates and related international compilations (share of population aged 65+ in %, ≈2024/2025).| Rank | Country / territory | 65+ share of population (%) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Monaco | 36.2 |
| 2 | Japan | 29.8 |
| 3 | Puerto Rico | 24.7 |
| 4 | Italy | 24.6 |
| 5 | Portugal | 24.5 |
| 6 | Greece | 23.9 |
| 7 | Finland | 23.9 |
| 8 | Germany | 23.2 |
| 9 | Croatia | 23.2 |
| 10 | Serbia | 22.7 |
Chart 1. “Super-aged” societies by 65+ share of population
Bar chart for the same Top-10 countries, highlighting how far they are above the global average (just above 10%).The chart shows the share of the total population aged 65 and above (%). Values are rounded and harmonised across sources; small differences versus national publications are possible. Global average is shown as a reference line in the analytical text, not on the chart.
From “younger-old” to “super-aged”: where the Top-100 countries sit
Looking beyond the Top-10, the full StatRanker league table of 100 countries by 65+ share reveals four broad demographic groups:
Super-aged countries are still a relatively small club: mostly high-income economies in Europe and East Asia. Advanced-aged countries form the next tier — large parts of Western and Central Europe, plus economies such as Canada and South Korea. The “ageing majority” now includes many upper-middle-income countries in Eastern Europe, Latin America and East Asia, where the 65+ share has climbed from single digits to the mid-teens within a single generation. At the other end of the spectrum, much of Sub-Saharan Africa remains demographically young, with fewer than one in twenty residents over 65.
The policy challenge is that countries are entering the ageing phase at very different income levels, with very different fiscal space and health-system capacity. The same 20% 65+ share will mean something very different in Germany, Brazil or Nigeria.
Table 2. Selected countries: 65+ share vs health expenditure (% of GDP)
Illustrative sample from the broader Top-100: ageing structure and overall current health expenditure as a share of GDP (latest available estimates, mostly 2021–2023).| Country | 65+ share of population (%) | Health expenditure (% of GDP) |
|---|---|---|
| Japan | 29.8 | 11.4 |
| Italy | 24.6 | 8.5 |
| Germany | 23.2 | 11.8 |
| Finland | 23.9 | ≈10.6 |
| Portugal | 24.5 | 10.0 |
| Greece | 23.9 | ≈8.6 |
| Croatia | 23.2 | 9.1 |
| Serbia | 22.7 | 9.7 |
| United States | 17.9 | 16.5 |
| United Kingdom | ≈18.5 | ≈10.9 |
| China | 14.7 | 5.4 |
| Brazil | 11.0 | 9.1 |
| Ukraine | 19.0 | 8.2 |
| India | ≈7.1 | 3.3 |
| Nigeria | ≈3.0 | 4.3 |
Chart 2. Ageing and health spending: 65+ share vs health expenditure
Scatter plot comparing the share of population aged 65+ (%) with total current health expenditure (% of GDP) for a selection of countries at different stages of population ageing.The scatter does not imply causality. Countries with similar 65+ shares can spend very different amounts on health (for example, the United States vs European peers), and younger countries can still face high fiscal pressure if health systems are under-funded or heavily reliant on out-of-pocket payments. Values are rounded and harmonised for comparability.
What the 65+ ranking means for pensions and healthcare
The Top-100 countries by 65+ share effectively map the rollout of population ageing across the world. At one end are super-aged societies where more than one in four residents are 65 or older; at the other, demographically young countries where the 65+ share is still below 5%. For policymakers, the ranking is less about who is “oldest” today and more about which systems are exposed to the steepest adjustment path in the next 10–20 years.
Pensions, health care and long-term care are the three main pressure points. In pay-as-you-go pension schemes, a higher 65+ share directly translates into a higher old-age dependency ratio: fewer workers per pensioner. In healthcare, the interaction is more complex. Ageing shifts the case-mix towards chronic and multi-morbidity conditions, which are costly even if they are managed well in primary care. Long-term care adds another, often under-measured layer of fiscal and social pressure.
The scatter between 65+ share and health expenditure in Part 2 shows that ageing does not mechanically drive spending levels. Some countries, such as Japan and Germany, combine high 65+ shares with high health spending, while others, like Greece or Portugal, operate closer to the OECD average. Younger, lower-income countries can also have relatively high health spending ratios if they face a heavy disease burden or rely strongly on private out-of-pocket payments.
Key policy implications from an ageing-world perspective
Translating the Top-100 ageing ranking into policy terms, several common themes emerge across very different institutional models:
- Pension design must adjust to longer lives. In super-aged and advanced-aged countries, the ranking underscores the need to align statutory pension ages and contribution careers with rising life expectancy. Many systems are shifting from rigid retirement ages towards flexible “retirement windows” with actuarially neutral adjustments.
- Health systems need to pivot towards prevention and chronic-care management. Where 65+ shares are high, the marginal dollar often yields more value in community-based and primary care settings than in additional hospital capacity. The ranking therefore strengthens the case for shifting resources from acute episodes to long-term condition management, rehabilitation and integrated care pathways.
- Long-term care becomes a core public policy, not a residual. In many countries, long-term care for older adults is still treated as a mix of family responsibility and fragmented local programmes. The ageing distribution in the Top-100 suggests that explicit long-term care financing and entitlement frameworks will become as important as pension and health insurance rules.
- Labour-market and migration policies interact with ageing. Countries with rapidly rising 65+ shares but still moderate income levels face a double challenge: financing ageing-related spending while maintaining growth. Higher labour-force participation at older ages, targeted migration policies and productivity-enhancing reforms can partly offset the demographic drag.
- Inequality within age groups matters. “Older” is not a homogeneous category. The Top-100 ranking, combined with income and health-status data, shows large disparities within the 65+ group. Policies that ignore these differences risk leaving the most vulnerable older adults behind, even in countries with generous aggregate spending.
For younger countries at the bottom of the 65+ ranking, the main implication is forward-looking: they have a demographic window to build institutions before ageing accelerates. Investing early in universal health coverage, basic pension schemes and social protection will reduce adjustment costs once the 65+ share starts to rise quickly.
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UN World Population Prospects 2024 (WPP).
Main source for country age structures and long-term demographic projections, including
the share of population aged 65+ and global ageing trends.
https://population.un.org/wpp -
UNFPA – Ageing thematic profiles.
Narrative and statistical material on global population ageing, including regional
breakdowns of the 65+ share and projections for the coming decades.
https://www.unfpa.org/ageing -
World Bank – World Development Indicators (WDI).
Country-level series on population by age group and current health expenditure (% of GDP),
used to harmonise the scatter plot between 65+ share and health spending.
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.65UP.TO.ZS
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.XPD.CHEX.GD.ZS -
OECD – Health at a Glance and health expenditure indicators.
Detailed data on health spending as a share of GDP and long-term care for OECD members,
used particularly for European and high-income economies in the Top-100.
https://www.oecd.org/health/health-data.htm -
WHO Global Health Expenditure Database.
Supplementary source on current health expenditure and government health spending (% of
GDP), especially for non-OECD countries with limited alternative coverage.
https://www.who.int/data/gho/data/themes/topics/health-expenditure -
TheGlobalEconomy.com – country health spending profiles.
Secondary compilation of World Bank health expenditure data (used for quick cross-checks
of the latest available values for selected countries in the scatter plot).
https://www.theglobaleconomy.com/rankings/health_spending_as_percent_of_gdp/
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