and 1960s, known as the “baby boomers”, will reach old age in the forthcoming years, causing an abrupt increase in
the number of elderly people (65+). The new demography of low fertility in combination with low mortality boosts
population ageing (Christensen et al., 2009), estimating that the number of people aged 65 and over in the EU will
increase from 79 million in 2000 to 107 million in 2025 (+35%) and to 133 million in 2050 (+68%) (Muenz, 2007).
Within this age group the largest increase is to be expected for people over 80 years of age (+180%), whilst at the
same time the working age population is projected to decrease significantly, raising thus the “dependency ratio