Ageing crisis looms as population of elderly grows
Uganda — long known as one of the youngest countries in the world — is quietly entering a demographic transition that could reshape its healthcare system and social policies in the decades ahead.
A new World Bank report, The Silver Opportunity, warns that the number of people aged 60 and older in countries such as Uganda, Rwanda, Malawi and Zimbabwe is expected to quadruple by 2050.
Under the shade of a mango tree in many Ugandan villages, elderly men still gather in the late afternoon to talk about the past — about the years after independence, the wars that followed, and the long journey the country has taken since.
For generations, such scenes have simply been part of rural life. However, demographers now say they are the early signs of something much bigger.
Uganda — long known as one of the youngest countries in the world — is quietly entering a demographic transition that could reshape its healthcare system and social policies in the decades ahead.
A new World Bank report, The Silver Opportunity, warns that the number of people aged 60 and older in countries such as Uganda, Rwanda, Malawi and Zimbabwe is expected to quadruple by 2050.
This is one of the fastest aging trends anywhere in the world.
Globally, the shift is already underway. By 2050, the number of people aged 60 and above is projected to reach 2.1 billion, more than double the figure recorded in 2017.
For many countries, that transformation will fundamentally change how healthcare systems operate.
A health system built for another era
Uganda’s health system, like many across Africa, was largely designed to fight infectious diseases such as malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis.
But ageing populations bring a different set of medical challenges.
Instead of short-term illnesses, doctors increasingly face chronic conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and stroke — diseases that require long-term monitoring rather than occasional treatment.
“Most healthcare systems today are designed to treat acute illness,” the World Bank report notes. “But aging populations require continuous care that manages chronic conditions over many years.”
That shift will force governments to rethink everything from hospital services to community healthcare.
Research findings in a journal echo the concerns of the World Bank report, stating the high costs of medicines for non-communicable diseases, among other challenges the elderly face in Uganda’s healthcare system.
“These are just finishing our medicines”: older persons’ perceptions and experiences of access to healthcare in public and private health facilities in Uganda is a 2024 research paper in the BMC Health Service Research, a journal. Its findings revealed the barriers to healthcare access the elderly face in the health system.
“The health system barriers included the unavailability of specialised personnel, equipment, and essential medicines for non-communicable diseases, frequent stock-outs, financial challenges, long waiting times, high costs for medicines for NCDs [non-communicable diseases], and long distances to health facilities,” the paper states.