India is undergoing significant demographic change and this year India overtook China as the world’s most populous country. The number of people in India aged 60 or over is set to double by 2050, which will constitute 20% of the population.

While still a comparatively young country, India’s population is ageing, and fast. How the country responds and adapts to an ageing population in a short time span, helping its citizens live not just longer but also healthier lives, will be crucial.

The average life span increased by 7% between 2000-2019. This increase is part of a much larger picture that shows a sharp improvement in life expectancy over the last five decades, largely due to decreases in infant and child mortality. But life expectancy has increased more slowly than it has for most other large middle-income countries.

Equally, the average number of healthy years lived, or ‘health span’, improved by 8% between 2000 and 2019. While this progress is excellent, all too often poor health in India arises from preventable diseases; suggesting more needs to be done to meet its people’s basic needs: nutrition, comprehensive vaccination, hygiene, and access to primary healthcare.

India ranks 102nd out of 121 countries across six healthy ageing metrics on the ILC’s Healthy Ageing and Prevention Index – the lowest of all the G20 countries. But India’s increased investment in Universal Health Coverage and efforts to improve access to education over the past two decades have resulted in considerable improvements to life and healthy life expectancy, which, if continued, could radically change India’s ranking.

The ILC’s work on the Healthy Ageing and Prevention Index is made possible by charitable support and grants from Amgen, GSK, Hallmark Foundation, MSD, Pfizer and Sanofi.