Decade after decade, the ageing population has changed our country without us realising it. The Silver Economy in Italy today is worth EUR 200 billion and generates risks and opportunities that should not be underestimated.
The Silver Economy is defined as the economic sector that develops around the needs of people over 65. It is a multifaceted sector resulting from a strong demographic trend, which includes many products and services using very different technologies, e.g. home automation, and addresses the heterogeneity and differences in consumption between working pensioners and family-dependent older people.
Silver Economy growth forecasts in Italy
All demographic projections now converge on the same forecast: by 2050-2070, the human population will increase and be older than today. In Europe, for example, the percentage of people over 65 will rise from 29.6% in 2016 to 51.2% in 2070 (source: Eurostat).
A 2018 study, entitled The Silver Economy, commissioned by the European Commission and carried out by the Technopolis Group and Oxford Economics, looked at the European population aged over 50, right up to the over 100s, and indicated that 199 million Europeans, 39% of the entire population, are already key players in this new economy and will become 222 million in 2025, rising to 43% of the population.
The study also estimates that Silver's consumption is already around the impressive figure of 3,700 billion euros and, if we also consider induced consumption, it will reach 4,200 billion.
Italy, as we know, is the oldest country in Europe and the oldest in the world together with Japan. But the ageing of the population affects almost all the most developed countries. It is a question of increased life expectancy due to scientific and medical progress and better living conditions - in Italy today the average life expectancy is 83 years, almost 40 years more than a century ago. But it is also a question of the fall in birth rates, a consequence of prosperity and female emancipation, and the convergence towards the so-called old age of the largest generation in history, the Baby Boomers.
We are experiencing a demographic transition from the classic pyramid model, with many children at the base and few elderly people at the top, to the model of modern developed societies that reverses the ratios: very few children and many elderly people. This is a worldwide phenomenon that is of particular interest to our country, which is also struggling to realise that it is playing a leading role in a profound change in society.
Active Agers and purchasing power: a tasty morsel for companies
Active Agers are characterised by an attitude towards time, which is seen as an agenda full of projects, relationships, experiences and exchanges. Time is seen as a sort of bank where they go to draw or deposit money (hours) for use and gratification. It is the discovery of a heritage that was previously unknown, living under pressure from work and family commitments.
The over-65s are characterised by a higher average annual per capita consumption compared to other segments of the population, 15.7 thousand euros (compared to 12.5 for the under-35s), a higher average income, 20 thousand euros (compared to 16 thousand for the under-35s), a higher real per capita wealth, 232 thousand euros (vs 110 thousand), a higher financial solidity, with 1 in 10 elderly people in debt (compared to almost 1 in 3 among the under 40s), half the incidence of poverty compared to the under 35s (13% vs 30%) and resilience to the economic cycle, as the average annual income of the over 65s, among the different age groups, is the only one to have exceeded pre-crisis levels.
The cliché of the lonely, fragile and unproductive sixty-year-old, with more needs than desires, is definitely outdated. What the market thinks of and produces for an elderly public continues to be beige and brown, when today's over-65s love colour, travel, relationships, good food and drink. Active Agers actually hold up the country's economy.
According to a recent study by Confindustria, the demand generated directly by the over-65s in Italy is worth 200 billion euros, almost one fifth of the entire amount of household consumption. It is estimated that in ten years' time it will be worth about a quarter of the total, and 30% in 2050. The wealth of our over-65s, as well as being passed on to their heirs, must be enhanced in order to navigate their longevity. In the United States, the financial sector has been working for some time to train new advisors capable of helping their clients to imagine future scenarios very different from the old age of their fathers, to plan investments and the management of their resources in accordance with an increasingly extended phase of so-called third age.
Silver Economy and digital
The Silver Economy is a market characterised by users who are much techier than one might think, so much so that we can speak of a 'silver digital generation'. Recent research has shown that 68.8% of the sample use the Internet; 89.5% use it more than once a week; 73.4% use smartphones; 71.7% are members of at least one social network. This is a generation that expresses personalised demand in the areas of tourism, food and wine, typical craftsmanship, wellness and health, at an age when the desire to travel, take care of oneself, cook, eat well, and do everything that one might not have been able to do before comes back.
The Silver Economy therefore presents companies - especially the most innovative ones - with an interesting challenge that can be transformed into a resource for the market, provided they fully grasp the scope of the changes taking place and know how to adapt to the peculiarities of a large segment of the population, transforming them into a targeted offer that promotes wellbeing and active ageing.
Considering the Silver Economy as an opportunity for growth means not only considering the demographic revolution in progress in terms of its cost impact for the community, but finally adopting the perspective of an opportunity for development, creating the conditions to meet the new needs of an increasingly large, technological and still little-known market.
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