More than one\u2011fifth of the European Union\u2019s population is 65 or older. In the U.S. the figure is one in six, or around 61 million people, a number that will jump to over 80 million by 2050. The number of people who will celebrate being 100 years old in America is set to double.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the EU, the proportion of working\u2011age adults between 15 and 64 will shrink from 64% of the total population in 2022 to 54% by 2100. In 2023, the EU\u2019s total fertility rate fell to 1.38 live births per woman, the lowest level recorded since 1961, when the gathering of comparable data began, and well below the 2.1 needed to keep the population stable without migration. Populations are falling in Portugal, Spain, Germany, Italy, and Poland, according to World Population Review. Without immigration, this downward trend will become more precipitous.\u00a0<\/p>\n
80%<\/p>\n
Of the average individual\u2019s health care spending occurs in the last decade of life <\/p>\n
1.38<\/p>\n
Live births per woman\u2013the EU\u2019s fertility rate in 2023<\/p>\n
54% <\/p>\n
The proportion of working-age adults in the EU by 2100<\/p>\n
How are we readying ourselves for a world where birth rates are declining, workforces are aging, and \u201cold age\u201d liabilities, such as pensions and acute health care, are stretching resources? The \u201ccost\u201d of old age is currently too high, while the \u201copportunity\u201d is underexplored. If we can stay healthier for longer, reskill, and rethink what retirement looks like, it is quite possible for millions of people to work until they are 80.<\/p>\n
Andrew Scott, economics professor and longevity expert, is a principal scientist at tech billionaire Larry Ellison\u2019s institute in Oxford. Ellison, who once said, \u201cDeath has never made any sense to me,\u201d has put generative biology at the heart of the institute\u2019s work, investing hundreds of millions of pounds of his own money in research. He is right to do so.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cA child born today has a 50% chance of living until they are 90,\u201d Scott told me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNearly all employment growth in the future will come from people over 50. For example, in the U.K. at age 50, around 80% of people are working; by age 65 that figure has dropped to 30%. If we could just halve the rate of decline, we would see a 4% boost to GDP. That\u2019s the closest thing to a free lunch for growth that I can see.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cA child born today has a 50% chance of living until they are 90\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Andrew Scott, economics professor and longevity expert<\/p>\n
Sir Jonathan Symonds, chairman of pharmaceuticals giant GSK<\/a>, has argued that our \u201chealth span\u201d\u2014living well\u2014is as important as our life span\u2014living for a long time. At an event I chaired with business leaders and policymakers, hosted by Oliver Wyman, a consultancy, in London last autumn, it was revealed that more than 80% of the average individual\u2019s health care spending occurs in the last decade of life.\u00a0<\/p>\n If we could identify markers of future health issues and act early, aging would not be dominated by the language of burden and decrepitude, Symonds argues. By recognizing lifelong health and the broader concept of well-being as a social and economic good, \u201cHow long am I going to live?\u201d becomes important whether you are 18 or 80. All those young people sweating it out at spin classes are to be applauded. Free gym memberships from employers are more than a fluffy perk.<\/p>\n Research collated by Oliver Wyman for Fortune reveals that wellness rituals are booming, particularly for the wealthy. Asked whether their overall well-being was likely to improve over the next 12 months, 65% of high-income groups said yes. If you have time, funds, supportive family and friends, and local facilities, you are likely to be healthier than if you do not. Lower-income groups are often left filling in the form with \u201cnone of the above.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe longevity economy is the next growth frontier, but health care\u2019s K-shaped divide is widening into two separate worlds,\u201d Rupal Kantaria, partner at Oliver Wyman Forum, told me. \u201cHigh-income consumers invest in customized prevention and longevity. At the lower end, illness and debt pile up. The middle is caught in between\u2014too affluent for safety nets, too stretched to get ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n Aging populations demand new responses from governments and businesses\u2014from workforce planning and preventive health care to new models of society and the built environment plus more positive lifestyles. As with AI and climate change, demography is a \u201ctotal effect\u201d phenomenon, obliging us to change how we think about every function we undertake and every strategic plan we execute. This is a conversation that needs to involve all age groups\u2014from teenagers contemplating a 60-year working life to the over-sixties who want to live a healthy and productive final three decades. We may not live forever, but most of us will live for an awfully long time.<\/p>\n This article appears in the February\/March 2026: Europe<\/a> issue of Fortune with the headline\u201d Larry Ellison is investing his fortune in healthier living. The Oracle<\/a> cofounder has spotted something millions have missed.\u201c<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI\u2019m gonna live forever,\u201d Irene Cara sang in the movie Fame. \u201cI\u2019m gonna learn how to fly.\u201d Both…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6536,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[167],"tags":[6644,6643,813,4697,4698,6641,6642,6645],"class_list":{"0":"post-6535","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-larry-ellison","8":"tag-and-wellness","9":"tag-fitness","10":"tag-larry-ellison","11":"tag-letter-from-london","12":"tag-londonarticles","13":"tag-longevity","14":"tag-personal-health","15":"tag-population"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116340558660541568","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775215940_805_Letter-From-London-revise6.jpg\"\/)
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