MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazilian population aging

The 17.6 million inhabitants over 60 ranks Brazil eighth worldwide in senior-citizen population the government said Wednesday.

Brazil's population has progressively aged to the point that for every 100 young people there are 25 seniors, according to the government Statistics Institute, IBGE, which said the over-60 now represent 9.7% of total population of more than 182 million.

Improved life expectancy, which rose from 67.7 years in 1991 to 71.7 years in 2004, and lower death rates have contributed to the higher percentage of seniors.

According to projections based on the statistics, which were compiled to produce IBGE's Summary of Brazilian Social Indicators, the number of Brazilians over the age of 70 will rise from 7.7 million in 2004 to 34.3 million in 2050.

The report, which was drawn up on the basis of data gathered from across the country in 2004 and uses U.N. estimates as reference shows that the 10 countries with the most people over 60 are, in order, China, India, United States, Japan, Russia, Germany, Indonesia, Brazil, Italy and France.

Researcher Lucia Cunha, who coordinated the study, said Brazil can still consider itself a young country since, unlike Italy, Japan or Germany it has fewer seniors compared to young population.

Of the Brazilians over 60, 13% admitted living alone and 87% with relatives. A third of the 17.6 million seniors said they were still in the workforce.

According to the report Brazil's population will grow 43% over the next 45 years to 259.8 million in 2050, but the rate of growth has slowed since the seventies.

Annual births per 1,000 inhabitants fell from 23.4 in 1991 to 20.6 in 2004, while the number of children born per woman dropped from 2.7 to 2.3 in the same period.