The impact of demographic change in Europe

Europe is going through profound demographic and societal changes. These changes affect different aspects of life and require the adoption of measures and initiatives.

One of the main changes now happening in Europe is the ageing of the population, which has an important impact on the labour market. The working-age population in Europe is expected to shrink by 18% by 2017, which will impact employment, productivity and skills.

In addition, an ageing society has different needs. Specifically, ensuring access to good quality, affordable and sustainable healthcare and other care services for all people is a main priority of ageing societies.

With the ageing of the population European societies will also get smaller; while in the 60s the EU held almost 12% of the world population by 2070 it is expected to account for only 4%.

What is more, the higher age-related public expenditure in Europe is expected to further increase; in 2019 age-related public expenditure amounted to 25.2% of GDP for EU27, which is expected to increase by 2070.

These are only some of the on-going demographic and societal changes in Europe.

With ageing societies, the need for caregivers and services for the elderly will increase even further in Europe, making it harder to satisfy the demand.

With the shirking of the working-age population, the need for employees from Third-Countries will also increase, especially in specific sectors as the caregiving one.

The MiCare project aims to help fill the gaps caused by the demographic changes in Europe. Funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union, MiCare aims to train Third Country National to work as caregivers for the elderly and people with care needs in order to help satisfy demands in the caregiving sector.

Learn more about the project:

Watch the European Commission’s video on the Impact of demographic change in Europe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pek2iM4Kbno