Office for National Statistics Forecasts

Part of 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance – in the Senedd at 1:39 pm on 14 November 2018.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 1:39, 14 November 2018

The ratio of people of working age to people who have retired is a very important one for all western economies. The Member will I'm sure be aware that, 50 years ago, people drew attention to this issue and said that the ratios were moving in the direction of there being more people of retirement age. There were five people of working age to every retired person 50 years ago; we're now closer to a ratio of 2:1. And, yet, we have managed to create an economy that allows us to celebrate the fact that people are living longer and that we are able to go on supporting them. So, the problem is not insurmountable. There are ways in which we can continue to grow the size of the economy, albeit that there are fewer people of working age within it, in a way that allows us to go on providing for that higher number of people in the population who will be beyond working age. There is a whole series of ways in which we've succeeded in doing that over the last 50 years and we must take some confidence from that, challenging as the issue is, that we will find ways of continuing to do that into the future.