Data Analysis and Related Applications, Volume 2

15Increase of Retirement Age and Health State of Population in Czechia

Population aging is very often regarded as a serious threat to the financial sustainability of welfare social systems, especially for the old-age pension system. Many states (including Czechia) intend to raise the retirement age above the standard usual threshold of 65 years. This threshold and its increase are usually determined by the economic or demographic point of view.

There arises a natural question if there will be enough appropriate working positions for persons of older age and if the health state of these persons will enable them to work after reaching 65 years.

This chapter presents a brief analysis of the health state of the population in Czechia in productive and post-productive ages, taking into account the increase in retirement age in the last decade and in the future.

15.1. Introduction

Population aging is one of the most important demographic phenomena of the recent decades of the previous century and of course of this century (e.g. Gavrilov and Heuveline 2003). Its reasons are well known: the long-standing decrease in mortality resulting in a prolongation of human life as well as the remarkable decrease in fertility during the previous century. Moreover, in some countries, the aging process is accelerated by a massive emigration of persons in productive and reproductive ages. This topic is very often discussed not only by demographers and economists, but also by the general public and ...