Sometimes we may wonder if the vast bureaucratic infrastructure of global governance is worthwhile, but this book is a brilliant example of what it can produce. In 2002, the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing established global targets with the aim that ‘persons everywhere are able to age with security and dignity and to continue to participate in their societies as citizens with full rights’ (p. 3). In 2007, the United Nations (UN) Department of Economic and Social Affairs produced a five-year progress report which has been revised and updated for a wider audience in this book. The authors take a broad-brush approach, based on available UN statistics and projections to 2050, to outline the main demographic and economic aspects of global population ageing, while at the same time emphasising that individual countries and regions will differ in detail, and that local solutions are essential. The overall message is that ‘the challenges are large but that they can be overcome through well-focused policies and without excessive strain on resources’ (p. 9).

The main division used in the analysis and statistical projections is economic – developed countries, countries in transition and developing countries – which coincides broadly with stages in the global demographic and epidemiological transitions. The authors are therefore able to present coherent, statistically-based arguments for the policies they advocate. They systematically present not only the conventional wisdom but also the important caveats and more cutting-edge thinking on demographic change, the economic effects of population ageing, ways of maintaining incomes for older people and the effects of epidemiological change on health and long-term care provision and costs. On demographic ageing, the book shows conclusively that neither migration nor policies to increase the birth rate will prevent ageing in developed countries, and that labour-force polices will have to evolve to suit an ageing workforce. In developing countries and countries in transition, the demographic bonus (an increase in the population of working age and falling dependency ratios) is clearly set out, but the beneficial effects are equally clearly linked to the presence of economic initiatives that can reap the benefit. Similarly, while raising the retirement age is presented as one of the solutions to pension system viability, it can only be satisfactory if recruitment and working practices change to make working in later life not only possible but more attractive than at present in developed countries. Calculations for the future cost of health and long-term care assume that institutional care will not be expanded and Chapter 3 includes an extended discussion of elder abuse, an important subject that is often neglected in global discussion.

Chapter 5 on income security offers one of the clearest and shortest guides to pension reform imaginable. As throughout the book, there are boxes in the text that explain in detail or give specific examples. The authors state clearly that whatever the pension system, it is the economic activity of younger generations that supports the income of elders. Although writing before the onset of the global economic crisis, they prefigure it by setting out the risks run by the pension fund investments and banking practices (in Chapter 4). They conclude that pension-fund sustainability and the implementation of universal non-contributory mini-pensions in developing countries, though related to the growth of outputs, are technically affordable, but dependent on political and cultural factors at country level. Following the Madrid declaration, rather than the World Bank (1994), the authors point out that there is ‘no point in having a financially viable system that provides inadequate benefits or does not reach all older persons’ (p. 156) and firmly support the social insurance principle of pension design. They also note, however, that in some developing countries with widespread income insecurity at all ages and health services that are barely accessible to large sections of the population, other calls on resources will have priority over older people.