Sixty is often seen as a slowdown. The United Nations (UN) wants us to see it as a turning point instead, where experience fuels new contributions, not retreat. The theme of the 2025 UN International Day of Older Persons, celebrated annually on 1 October, carries a powerful message: older persons are not passengers in society, but drivers of local and global change.
Productive ageing—the idea that older persons can contribute to their own lives, their communities and the overall society—takes many forms, encompassing engagement in not only full or part-time work but also non-formal activities like caregiving, grandparenting, homemaking, lifelong learning, civic engagement, and volunteering. Besides economic benefits, productive ageing is associated with better health outcomes for older persons, stronger network support ties with their family and community, and more positive public perceptions of ageing.
Staying productively engaged also promotes older persons’ sense of autonomy and self-worth, triggers positive emotions, facilitates inter-generational bonding, and even the preservation of cultural traditions and values across time. Hence, we must encourage and empower our older persons to fully realise the potential of ageing productively.
Policies and nation-wide initiatives are crucial to ensure that older persons are well-supported and protected to engage in the activities that interest and invigorate them in diverse fields. Raising the retirement age ensures that older persons who want and can continue working, are given the opportunity to do so. In fact, Asia’s fastest ageing nations—Japan, South Korea and Singapore—have also rolled out initiatives that support up-skilling of older workers and salary subsidies for companies hiring older workers. Singapore has also introduced the concept of ‘re-employment age’, which will be raised to 69 in 2026. This means employers must offer eligible staff re-employment beyond the statutory retirement age.
Besides work-focused policies, some countries have expanded their focus by encouraging and providing opportunities for older persons to volunteer and learn as well as by building age-friendly facilities that encourage mobility and community building for all age groups, including older persons. Most importantly, co-creation with older persons themselves is also crucial in making sure that efforts are tailored to the specific needs of sub-groups with various physio-psychological needs.
By 2030, one in six people (16%) on this planet will be over 60. This will rise to one in every five individuals (22%) by 2050. The challenge is not ageing itself, but how boldly we embrace it. Unlocking the power of productive ageing will help us realise and benefit from the vast potential of our older persons, a force of wisdom, resilience and renewal. Ageing is not a crisis—it is our chance to rewrite the future. And the time to start is now.
Research Assistant at the Centre for Ageing Research and Education (CARE) at the Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore. With a background in sociology, she currently works on a nationally representative longitudinal survey that aims to collect comprehensive data on the health and well-being of older Singaporeans and the changes over time.
MBBS, MD, MPH. Associate Professor of Health Services Research & Population Health (HSRPH) and the Executive Director of the Centre for Ageing Research and Education (CARE) at the Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore. The primary area of his research is ageing, at the individual and the population level. The geographical focus of his research is Singapore—including nationally representative longitudinal surveys of older Singaporeans. He is a member of the World Health Organization’s Consortium on Metrics and Evidence for Healthy Ageing and served on the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council for Healthy Ageing and Longevity for the 2020-2021 term.