Recipes for Systemic Change - Helsinki Design Lab

Key DimensionsProvided below are a number of key dimensions to the ageing challenge. Thislist is by no means exhaustive and exploration of additional dimensions isencouraged.D1—The Looming WaveThe Baby Boom generation is approaching retirement age. In Finland,as the retirement population surges, a significant shift in the demographicbalance will have profound effects on the structure of the Finnish welfaresystem.Finland's population by age cohort8%7%6%5%2009202020504%|5-9|15-19|25-29|35-39|45-49|55-59|65-69|75-79|85+Population of Finland by percentage that each age cohort represents. 2009 based on actualdata; 2020 and 2050 based on projections.SourceStatisticsFinlandThe estimated increase in the number of individuals over sixty-five willrise from 16% of the overall population to 26% by 2030. At the same time,the proportion of the population under fifteen will decrease from 17% to15.5% by 2040. This represents the effective doubling of the dependencyratio by 2030. (Statistics Finland)The retirement of the Baby Boomers will produce a critical imbalancebetween the number of working and non-working citizens. This imbalancewill in turn produce a sustainability gap in the national budget. Whileit is unrealistic to propose a particular figure that could close this gap, itremains clear that if everything is held constant, the retirement of the BabyBoomers will create long-term systemic deficits regardless of which underlyingassumptions are made.282