Editor’s note: This article was first published in July 2011. Its projection that 33% of Spain’s population will be over 65 by 2050 is a 2011 forecast with no source given.
When you’re thinking about starting a business or company, you need to consider whether there will be customers demanding your product or service in the future. In this case, it’s easy to foresee a type of customer who will need a service in the coming years. This is Spain, a country where life expectancy keeps rising and the birth rate is among the lowest, so on current trends, by 2050 33% of the Spanish population will be over 65.
This means there will be more elderly people than workers to look after them. On the other hand, we don’t know what financial situation our elders will be in: we don’t know whether they’ll have a decent pension to get by on, or to afford a few luxuries. One of the most profitable businesses of the future will focus on geriatric care and the wellbeing of our elders, so any innovative business idea in this sector will find demand.
That said, you’ll need to find a way to make a geriatric care or entertainment company economically viable, both for the business’s accounts and for older people’s pockets.
This is one of the biggest social challenges Spain faces today, because there’s nothing we can do to turn back the clock. Businesses of this kind are very well received by organisations that offer to study your project and help you finance it, such as Momentum Project, a programme that supports all kinds of social entrepreneurship.
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