PERSPECTIVE article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Aging and Public Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1678040
Getting ahead of the ageing curve: learning from EU experiences for a healthier demographic transition
Provisionally accepted
- 1Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- 2Universidade de Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal
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Population ageing is accelerating worldwide, with one in six people projected to be over sixty by 2030. This demographic shift is already evident in Europe, with slower life‑expectancy gains, widening healthspan–lifespan gaps, and growing labour shortages. In this paper, we examine global projections, country‑level disparities, evidence from economics, geroscience and public health to assess the conditions under which longevity can generate a net social dividend. Our analysis highlights recent advances in ageing research, including stem‑cell, epigenetic and anti‑inflammatory interventions, as well as meta-research efforts to promote community-driven consensus on strategic geroscience problems. Translating these insights into societal benefits require regulatory recognition of ageing as a treatable condition, equitable access to innovation, and living‑lab ecosystems that connect bench discoveries to health and social care. Using fiscal modelling, we show that disability‑driven expenditure could rise by as much as 2.7% of EU GDP annually by 2070, unless offset by slower biological ageing or managed migration. Finally, we suggest that European experiences, particularly from the Iberian Peninsula, can inform South American countries now entering rapid demographic transition.
Keywords: demographic transition, healthspan–lifespan gap, geroscience, Healthy longevity, policy integration
Received: 01 Aug 2025; Accepted: 30 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Freitas and Malva. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Hércules Rezende Freitas, herculesrezendef@hotmail.com
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