The best places to spend one's golden years

OH, FLOWER of youth—look out! By 2030 some 1.4 billion people will be aged 60 or over. Yet where ought one fritter away the years? Sweden, according to a new index by HelpAge International, a British charity. Its Global AgeWatch index considers four areas: income security, health, employment and education, and the social environment. Rich countries obviously do best—which is useful since they will have the biggest share of elderly. Comparing the index against GDP (which was included as a small component) reveals widely differing experiences of old age across countries despite similar levels of economic and social development. South Korea scores significantly lower than Spain and Italy despite having a similar GDP; New Zealand scores twice as well. In some cases, poor countries can offer lessons to rich ones: the elderly in Sri Lanka, Bolivia and Mauritius fare better than those of Greece, Turkey and Russia. And the regional disparity is vast: by 2030 a quarter of Europeans will be 60 or over while only 6% of Africans will be.