For the first time in human history, people aged 65+ outnumber children aged five and under worldwide.

Sebastian Dettmers

LinkedIn post from September 7, 2026

For the first time in human history, people aged 65+ outnumber children aged five and under worldwide.

Three numbers behind the headline:

👉 852 million people aged 65+ in 2025. A projected 2 billion by 2060.

👉 More than 71% of humanity lived in countries with fertility at or below replacement level in 2023. Up from 45% in 2013.

👉 16 people aged 65+ for every 100 people aged 15–64 in 2025. A projected 32 by 2060.

Longer lives are an extraordinary achievement. Keeping living standards rising as societies age is one of the defining economic challenges of our time.

In many economies, relatively fewer people of working age will need to deliver more care and sustain the services we all rely on.

This is why I keep coming back to productivity.

AI and automation that free up people's time. 

Better education and training. 

Immigration that connects talent with opportunity. 

And workplaces that allow experienced people to keep contributing if they want to.

I remain optimistic about what we can achieve. Our investment plans, job design and business models need to reflect the population we will actually have.

Demography gives us unusually long notice. We should make better use of it.