it also reflects low wages and productivity for older adults. Population aging could serve as a drag on economic growth as the effective number of workers declines relative to the effective number of consumers. East Asia faces the most serious problems. In the Republic of Korea, for example, the support ratio is expected to decline by 0.8 percent per year over the next 40 years. In the absence of measures to compensate for this change, standards of living will be reduced by more than 25 percent between 2010 and 2050.