Sustainable ageing: Concept, dimensions, and policy levers

Bruno Arpino, Università Di Padova
Valeria Bordone, University of Vienna
Pearl Dykstra , Erasmus University Rotterdam

Population ageing is reshaping social, economic, and political systems. While classic frameworks—successful, active, and productive ageing—highlight health, participation, and contribution, they largely centre on individual attributes. We advance sustainable ageing as a broader, forward-looking, whole-of-society approach that secures the well-being, autonomy, and inclusion of today’s older adults while safeguarding the social, economic, political, and ecological resources needed for tomorrow’s generations. Sustainable ageing is intrinsically multidimensional and intersectional: it links pension and labour-market design to heterogeneous life courses; integrates health and long-term care with support for families; leverages digitalisation, AI, and assistive technologies without entrenching dependency; and recognises environmental exposures alongside housing, transport, and urban form. It is also political and cultural, requiring an intergenerational pact, age-inclusive participation, and anti-ageism. A family lens clarifies opportunities and tensions: policies that encourage grandparental childcare or extend working lives can yield benefits yet create time-budget trade-offs for intergenerational support. We sketch a policy agenda to operationalise sustainable ageing: flexible, life-course-sensitive pensions; work–care reconciliation across mid- and late-career; integrated health and long-term care; age- and child-friendly environments; universal digital inclusion (with design for assisted/proxy use that preserves autonomy); climate-resilient spatial planning; cross-ministerial governance; and multidomain measurement dashboards (e.g., Active Ageing Index extensions) to track trade-offs and co-benefits. By adopting a sustainable, intergenerational lens, policymakers can craft measures that promote health and equity today and remain fiscally and ecologically viable over time.

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 Presented in Session 6. Demographic Change and the Making of European Welfare Policy