Population Ageing and the Public Finances

A projected shift in the demographic composition of the Irish population in the coming decades will pose significant challenges for the public finances. Ireland’s old-age dependency ratio – the number of retirees as a fraction of the number of workers – is set to double over the coming decades, from 21 per cent at present to a peak of around 46 per cent in the middle of this century. This will involve increased outlays in demographically-sensitive components of public expenditure, such as pensions and healthcare.