While the rest of Europe worries about a ‘silver tsunami’ or ‘demographic bomb’, the cities of Wrocław and Kraków are treating their ageing populations as an opportunity rather than a burden – with remarkable results
On a balmy Friday afternoon earlier this month, the most feared group of people in Europe breached the 13th-century defensive walls of Wrocław and poured into the town square. Some wore blue berets, others cowboy hats, straw boaters and, in one instance, a three-tiered cake stand adorned with kitchen sponges and pompoms. Resistance was futile: less than an hour after their arrival, the mayor ceremonially handed over the key to the Polish city’s gate to the flamboyantly dressed couple they had chosen as their queen and king.
Baby boomers are often talked of as an existential threat to Europe’s economic prosperity and welfare state model. The population of men and women born in the mid-1940s to mid-60s, who are now in their 60s, 70s and 80s, is calculated by the World Health Organization to have overtaken people younger than 15 in Europe this year, and it is estimated boomers will make up more than 30% of the EU’s population by 2100. They are forecast to leave workplaces understaffed and healthcare services overwhelmed. Economists talk of them in terms of natural catastrophes (“the silver tsunami”) or acts of terrorism (“the demographic bomb”).
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