Costa Rica is beginning to register symptoms of demographic change and, sometimes, it seems that we have no idea what is coming our way.
The population structure is changing drastically and rapidly. We are migrating towards a society with a diminished young population, which will have to help support a large older adult population.
A reportage published on February 17 by the journalist The NationLuis Enrique Brenes, regarding the almost two million people who are outside the labor market, explains that people over 60 years of age constitute the age group that has the most impact on this phenomenon.
By the end of 2025, almost a million people over 60 were out of the market. A part manages to retire, but another is left without retirement, either depending on other income or relatives.
Gilbert Brenes, researcher at the Central American Population Center of the University of Costa Rica (CCP-UCR), sees an early sign of the demographic recomposition process.
The birth rate dropped sharply to 1.12 children per woman. The electoral roll is also proof of this: the percentage of voters under 35 years of age fell from 43% to 33% in just over two decades: between the election of Abel Pacheco and that of Laura Fernández.
However, in that same period, The group of citizens between 50 and 64 years old grew from 12% to 21%.
The impact of this phenomenon will be overwhelming on the pension system. Demographic change now has to be put on the discussion table, at the same level as the State debt with IVM pensions.
However, that is not the only field of impact. In hospitals, the number of older adults waiting for health care is evident; Increasingly, the CCSS will have to face heavy expenses for this population. For a family, it is devastating to see an older adult scheduled for an appointment with a specialist in one or two years. Households are forced to spend more and more on private medicine.
Many older people also try to cross streets where there are no traffic lights or pedestrian crossings; Many others try to take buses while the government reduces the frequency of many routes.
It is everyone’s obligation to protect them. No one is exempt from this; We are all going on that path. For this, Reforms are required that adapt to demographic change. The elected president of the Republic, Laura Fernández, has given statements that clearly take this factor into account. To those in power, whether in the Executive or the Legislative, Please do something about it.
