Are older adults healthier than before? Global evidence on healthy aging

This paper provides new global evidence on healthy aging—the extent to which populations age in better health across successive birth cohorts. Using harmonized microdata on individuals aged 50 and above in 41 countries over 2000–22, we document systematic cohort‑on‑cohort improvements in health outcomes. These gains span physical, cognitive, and mental health, with the strongest improvements observed in cognitive functioning. Despite this broad-based progress, sizable health disparities persist both across and within countries: older adults in emerging markets, and individuals with lower education, lower household wealth, or living in rural areas, continue to experience worse health outcomes when reaching old age. In general, the broad-based evidence on healthy aging across multiple health indicators offers room for optimism: better health outcomes in older individuals could improve labor supply and productivity in old age, and thus offer some relief from demography’s drag on growth. However, persistent disparities highlight that health gains are uneven and that policy efforts to promote healthy aging must account for the large differences in health conditions across socioeconomic groups.