At a glance:

• A quarter of Indonesia’s population was aged 50 and over in 2018 – and this is set to increase to 28% by 2035.
• In Indonesia, 72% of people aged 50-64 were in employment in 2018.
• Over half of all dollars (56%) in the G20 economy were spent by older households (those led by people aged 50 and older), amounting to 22% of GDP
• If remunerated, the value of volunteering done by older people in non-European G20 countries would equate to nearly 0.5% of GDP.

We’ve become accustomed to ageing populations being presented as a bad thing. But far from being a cost or drain on public resources, older people’s social and economic impact is significant.

But it could be much higher if we remove avoidable barriers to working, spending, caring and volunteering, with the most important being poor health.

We know that countries that invest more in health see more people working, spending and volunteering and that investment in prevention drives a return. Spending just 0.1 percentage points more on preventative health can unlock an additional 9% in spending by older consumers and an average of 10 additional hours of volunteering across the G20.

In this report, we highlight the economic contributions of older people in Indonesia and across the G20 today and what more could be done to unlock a longevity dividend over the years to come, which could be instrumental in the post-COVID recovery.

To achieve this, we call on the Government of Indonesia to adopt an Ageing Society New Deal that sees spend on prevention raised to 6% of health budgets, alongside greater support for older people’s paid and unpaid contributions.