Coping with ageing societies poses global challenge

LONDON, Apr 26 (Reuters) Until eight months ago, Freda Gibson drove regularly around London and was behind the wheel when she returned from Wales after an annual walking trip.

She lives alone, shops and cooks for herself. But after more than 70 years she decided to give up driving and prefers to stay close to the home she has lived in for more than half a century.

At six months shy of her 94th birthday who could blame her? Her eyesight is failing and she has the odd memory lapse, but apart from that, Gibson says she feels fine.

''My doctor says there's no reason I shouldn't see 100,'' she says with a sly smile.

If she reaches 100, she won't be alone. The number of centenarians in England and Wales has doubled about every 10 years and is expected to hit 39,000 by 2036.

Lower birth rates, longer life expectancy and retiring baby boomers mean that in the next four years the number of 55 to 64-year-olds in Europe will exceed those in the 15 to 24-year age group.

''Experts predict that the world will have 2 billion people over 60 by 2050, up from the current 600 million. Ageing societies are a reality,'' Ursula Haubner, the Austrian minister of generations and social affairs, told a meeting on health and ageing in Vienna.

LIVING HEALTHIER LONGER Some experts believe medical advances could push age boundaries beyond the current upper limit of 120 and the average life expectancy in developed countries from about 80 to more than 100.

Like Gibson, who has enjoyed good health throughout her long life, more elderly people are choosing to live alone.

''In Western Europe the trend is, if you are able, to live on your own or with your spouse,'' said Professor Emily Grundy, a demographic gerontologist at the Centre for Population Studies at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Couples and single people sometimes decide to move to another area or country after they retire. Usually, it is only a small proportion of retirees but Grundy said it has a big effect because they tend to go to the same places.

Coastal towns in Britain, villages in southern Spain and France, and cities in Florida and Arizona in the United States are favourite destinations.

''Only in the face of serious disability towards the end of life does moving, either to an institution or with relatives, become more common,'' Grundy added.

Medical experts predict one of the biggest challenges of an ageing population -- alongside a greying workforce, supporting pensions, age discrimination and equitable access to health care -- will be learning how to live healthier longer.

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