Living in China for 10 years I was used to seeing old people everywhere, shuffling along the streets hunched over a walking stick, playing chess and mah jong and dancing in the parks or looking after their grandchildren. But I am yet to see an old person in Africa.
This only occurred to me when I was reading an article (forget where from – so many articles these days) on why the death rate in Africa was quite low compared to, say Italy.
The article pointed to one of the factors being the difference in the proportion of the population over 65.
I thought back to my 9 months in Africa and couldn’t really think of a time when I engaged an old person in conversation or even saw one walking along the road or the beach.
I am guessing they could all be in the countryside. A city is no place for the elderly after all.
I decided to have a look at the official statistics and the difference is easy to see. Japan has the highest proportion of over 65’s at 28%. Italy has over 20% but Tanzania has around 2.6%.
As has been established, older people are more at risk of dying from COVID-19 virus than young people and the fact that the death rate in Africa is relatively low, is surely partly to do with this difference.