The Longitudinal Ageing Study in India, Wave 1, 2017–18

The Longitudinal Ageing Study in India is the world’s largest and India’s first ever survey that provides a longitudinal database for designing policies and programmes for the older population in the broad domains of social, health, and economic well-being, in addition to understanding the science of ageing. In this paper, key findings from the baseline survey of LASI on a range of indicators that cover chronic health conditions, biomarkers (based on direct health examinations), healthcare utilisation, social and economic well-being of older adults in India and its states and union territories are presented.

Population ageing, which entails an increasing share of older persons aged 60 years and above in a population, represents an unprecedented global demographic transformation, and is expected to intensify during the remainder of the 21st century. Ageing results from demographic transition, a process whereby reductions in mortality are followed by reductions in fertility. Individuals are living longer than ever before. The global life expectancy at birth for males and females reached 68.5 and 73.3 years between 2010 and 2015, up from 45.5 years and 48.5 years, respectively, since 1950. Global life expectency is projected to reach 74.5 years for males and 79.1 years for females in 2050 (UN 2019).

With approximately 1.36 billion inhabitants in 2019, India is projected to become the world’s most populous country in the next five years. In the 2011 Census, the elderly population aged 60 years and above accounted for 8.6% of the total Indian population, numbering 103 million elderly persons (RGI 2011). The share of the elderly population is projected to further rise to 19.5% (319 million) by 2050 (UN 2019). Including the pre-retirement adult phase, the population in older adult ages of 45 years and above will rise to constitute over 40% of the population of India, or 655 million people, by 2050. The number of people aged 75 years and above is expected to increase by 340% between 2011 and 2050.