Introduction 

This report addresses the concept of Active and Healthy Ageing in the Nordic Region. This study is set against the backdrop that population ageing is a major demographic trend. Research shows that the old-age dependency ratio will increase from 30 per cent in 2017 to 40 per cent by the year 2040 (Sánchez Gassen & Heleniak, 2019). This is due to people living longer and points towards the need to better assess the living conditions of the senior population. In response to this, population ageing has increasingly emerged on the policy agenda in the Nordic Region and more broadly in Europe and globally. As population ageing has gained awareness, promoting health and well-being has become a key objective of ageing policies.

For these reasons, many international bodies such as the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) have devoted resources to addressing population ageing. Two concepts that have become prominent on the policy agenda are active ageing and healthy ageing, which are central for framing this study.

Active ageing is defined by the WHO (2002) as the process of optimising the opportunities for health, participation, and security in order to enhance quality of life in older age. In the WHO framework for active ageing, “active” refers to continued participation in social, economic, cultural, spiritual, and civic affairs as people age. Furthermore, it is emphasised that ageing policies should embrace a life course perspective and acknowledge that earlier life circumstances influence how individuals age. Similarly, healthy ageing refers to the process of maintaining and developing the functional ability that enables well-being in older age (WHO, 2019). Health and well-being in older age is affected by numerous factors such as socio-economic status, lifestyle habits, exercise and diet, social inclusion, and housing (WHO, 2002). Central to both these concepts is the notion that the older population is a highly diverse group with different needs.

Another concept closely linked to the idea of active and healthy ageing and relevant for this study is age-friendliness. This concept is used particularly in the context of age-friendly cities and communities, which can be defined as places that foster active and healthy ageing (WHO, 2015). Central to the idea of planning for an age-friendly community is adopting an integrated approach where different policy and planning domains are considered in unison (WHO, 2007). Additionally, the concept of welfare technology is relevant for these studies, especially the role of welfare technology in supporting active and healthy ageing. Welfare technology consists of all technology that contributes to improving the lives of those who need and use it, and it is used, for instance, for maintaining and increasing security and promoting activity, participation, and the independence of seniors and people with disabilities (Nordic Welfare Centre, no date).

This report is part of the Nordic Welfare Centre’s project Age-friendly and sustainable societies in the Nordic region, aiming to promote activity and health among Nordic senior citizens. This study has been conducted in parallel with the closely connected study Active and Healthy Ageing: Heterogenous perspectives and Nordic indicators (Huynh et al., 2022), where the indicators and data compiled for this study are analysed.

This report aims to answer the following three key questions:

For this report, relevant indicators and data have been examined and compiled. The research material also consists of research literature and policy reports as well as interviews/round table discussions with practitioners working with indicators. The report is primarily intended for policymakers and practitioners working with the promotion of active and healthy ageing, age-friendliness, and welfare technology for seniors at different levels of society.

The report is therefore structured in three sections, each of them answering the questions outlined above. In the next section, An outlook on Nordic indicators, we present a description of all the available statistical indicators that we have found in our research. This section shows the statistical indicators produced by international and European bodies, Nordic institutions, and national statistical institutes looking at regional and municipal levels. Despite including international and European indicators, the section is named Nordic indicators because we will focus on indicators that allow for examining the Nordic region. In addition to describing what indicators exist, we assess and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of these indicators.

In the section The role of indicators in supporting policy initiatives and actions we address the issue of how these indicators are used to produce evidence-based policy. To do so, we show what policies have been implemented in the Nordic countries and how these indicators have informed these policies. In addition, we complement the section with the results of a roundtable discussion held with public authorities working in the field of active and healthy ageing from each of the Nordic countries.

In the last section, Discussion: improvements and development needs, we analyse the results obtained from the two previous sections and address the current situation regarding the availability of indicators and their usage in policymaking and discuss key improvement and development needs. Finally, based on our findings, we present a set of policy recommendations aimed at strengthening the availability of statistical indicators, improving their usage, and tackling the shortcomings found.