Ammon News - Older people account for about 6.1 percent of Jordan's population and are expected to comprise 7.7 percent of the total population by 2030, Abla Amawi, Secretary-General of the Higher Population Council (HPC) said on Wednesday.

Citing official figures and projections, Amawi indicated that seniors (60 and above) are expected to make up 13.5 percent of the Jordan's total population by 2050, which, according to Amawi, means that the Kingdom will have entered an "aging society" stage.

Speaking at a workshop on integrating the elderly in decision-making, organized in cooperation with the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), the HPC Secretary-General noted that when non-Jordanians are taken into accounts, seniors comprise 5.4 percent of the nation's total population according to 2020 figures.

She stressed the need for an institutional social protection mechanism for the elderly, and to find "another" demographic window that would allow for investing in this age group's potential and capabilities.

Amawi pointed out that Jordan has recorded a significant increase in life expectancy at birth since 1961. According to figures issued by the Department of Statistics, the number of years added to life expectancy reached 19.3 years (from 54 years in 1961 to 73.3 years in 2019).

Therefore, Amawi said, this requires revising the national definition of the elderly segment, in order to ensure that these additional years are employed as production years in national legislation, strategies and policies.

ESCWA's Regional Adviser on Population Affairs, Sarah Salman, indicated that the number of people over the age of 60 is expected to exceed 100 million by 2050. She noted that in Jordan, the aging society stage (which is the stage in which the proportion of the elderly rises from 7 to 14 percent of the population) is expected to begin in 2035, and it will be a very fast process that will last about two decades.