The Super Age is upon us. Here’s what that means for businesses

Bradley Schurman is a demographic futurist and opinion maker on all things dealing with the business of longevity who helps organisations harness the opportunities of our ageing world.

As explained in the book extract below, Schurman dedicated his career to investigating how an ageing population would affect individuals and organisations across the globe after a visit to his grandparents. Enter: the Super Age.

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I first noticed an early harbinger of the Super Age nearly 25 years ago when traveling from Washington, DC, where I was attending American University, to my hometown of Pittsburgh. A key stop on that road journey is the midway point between the two cities, Breezewood, Pennsylvania, where I got off Interstate 70 to take a break before hopping onto the turnpike.

The demographic shift that I witnessed between DC and Breezewood was stark. DC was a young, vibrant, affluent city filled with people from around the country and the world. Breezewood, on the other hand, was an older, depressed, poorer town and filled with people from, well, Breezewood. It was not at all uncommon at the time to see older men and women — many well into their 70s and some into their 80s — working in fast-food restaurants or cleaning bathrooms, jobs that used to be reserved almost exclusively for teenagers.

The image of these older people working these tough jobs after retirement age was jarring. I remember asking myself, “Why are they not retired and enjoying these last years of their lives?” My grandparents, in their 80s at the time, had left the workforce nearly three decades before and were enjoying a comfortable retirement. They had never lived overly privileged lives, and they were arguably middle to lower middle class; my grandmother had been a special-needs public school teacher, my grandfather an elevator installer. Their comfort had been made possible by a long life of hard work, personal austerity, and robust private and public pensions.

By the time I was nearing graduation, my grandparents were happily ensconced, albeit at the beginning of their health decline, in a continuing care retirement community (CCRC) in Oakmont, Pennsylvania. CCRCs are built communities where there are typically a minimum age for entry (around 55) and multiple levels of living and care. At the time CCRCs usually included independent living, assisted living, and nursing care. I saw that the people in the community were not only more affluent than average, but they were also more age diverse: it was not at all unusual to see residents as young as 60 hobnobbing with others as old as 90 or even 100.

At that point, I realised that the demographic shift I was witnessing was seismic and would affect nearly every economy on the planet in my lifetime. From that point on, I dedicated my career to understanding how the aging of the population was affecting social and economic norms. I focused my endeavors to uncover the best policies and practices being developed by public and private sector organisations to address one of the great questions: What can we as individuals do with all of the extra years, and what should we as a society do with all of these old people? There has to be something better than their serving burgers or scrubbing rest stop toilets during what are supposed to be their years of rest and relaxation.

For more than 20 years, I have traveled around the world observing, reporting, and advocating for a better understanding and embrace of the Super Age. I’ve worked closely with national governments, as well as major multinational organizations, including the Asian Development Bank, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the World Economic Forum, to develop better policies for our increasingly older world. My advocacy and expertise around extending working lives has touched employers as big as ThyssenKrupp, and my research into harnessing the opportunities presented by the Super Age has moved major companies such as IBM to rethink their approach to product and service delivery, as well as the demographics they serve.

Throughout all of that, I learned that ageing remains relatively the same as it was in classical times: it is challenging, fraught with pitfalls, and successful only for a few. What has changed is that on average more people are living longer and healthier lives than ever before, and society needs older people more than ever. Some experts have suggested that we’re extending middle life — also known as the middle-plus years — while others insist that a new life stage is emerging altogether, akin to the emergence and then dominance of teenagers and retirees during the last century. Experts universally agree that we’re not tacking on extra years of decline at the end of life, but inserting more healthy and productive years into the middle.

No matter what name we give to this life extension, all of the extra years mean that we will have more time than ever before in history to learn, to work and earn, to consume, to contribute, to volunteer or give care, to spend time with friends and family, and to enjoy life. It also means that we will have to fundamentally rethink the way our society is ordered, as well as challenge ourselves to adjust our individual lives and adapt the organisations we serve to the new realities of the Super Age.

One need look no farther than the current president of the United States, Joseph R. Biden, who, at the age of 78, became the oldest person ever to be elected to that office. President Biden, who is known for his physical fitness, works out five days a week with a routine that includes crunches — 46 for the 46th presidency — and regular rides on his Peloton, a high-tech Wi-Fi-connected stationary bicycle that comes with live streaming and recorded spin classes.

The new reality is all around us already in our everyday lives. Think for a minute, if you can, of the last time you saw a couple out and about with a child. Did you ask yourself, “Are those people the child’s parents or grandparents?” I know I have, and I know many older friends who have been confronted with that question about their own children, often to their chagrin.

If you’ve visited a playground or park, especially in urban areas, you’ll find traditional younger parents alongside older parents in their 40s, 50s, and even 60s. Parenting is no longer just the provenance of youth, and the data support this observation. Though the overall birth rate in the developed world is down, American women aged 40 to 49 are actually seeing an uptick in the number of pregnancies. When I shared this observation on the Today show in 2019, the producer confessed to me that she was one of those older mothers in her 50s.

The Super Age shift isn’t just playing out on the playground, it’s also happening in the workplace. During a recent visit to an Apple store, I was helped by a man in his 70s, who was one of the most personable and knowledgeable specialists I’ve ever encountered. When I pressed him on why he was working well past traditional retirement age, his answer was simple yet startling. Earlier that year, his father had passed away at 106 after a battle with Alzheimer’s disease. In his estimation, which he based on his father’s longevity and his current health condition, he had at least another 10 to 20 years to work and needed the income. Plus, as he shared in hushed tones, he really enjoyed the friendships and camaraderie of working in a generationally diverse retail environment with younger people.

The reality of the Super Age is starting to set in for more and more individuals who are nearing retirement or are already retired. During a railway trip across the United States to research this book, I encountered numerous men and women from various economic backgrounds who all expressed apprehension about the prospect of retirement or a desire to return to full-time or part-time work after they had already retired. One woman, who had left her job as an administrative aide in an elementary school at the age of 60, confessed that she had retired from her job too soon. Less than a year into her first retirement, she was planning a return to work.

Now imagine the apprehension that baby boomers must feel when it comes to their physical decline and mortality. Though neither of these issues is new or particularly pleasant to talk about, previous generations have largely dealt with them in silence and for a shorter period of time. But today, the increase in the number of people living longer with chronic conditions, coupled with the proliferation of social media, allows more of us to share our stories and strategies for living longer with more and more people around the world. With more people aware of the realities of longer life, we could see more individuals and organizations attempting to “solve” for aging and its related diseases, whether by extending the lives of human cells, lengthening telomeres, or repairing or replacing entire organs or body parts that have worn out over time.

As we greet the Super Age, we will be forced to change. The way our economy works will have to be profoundly different; culturally, we may face new battles between the old and the young, which could have massive impacts on our politics, technology, and lifestyles. We also face a challenge: a large number of older poor people who are locked out of modern life in fast-vanishing rural communities. However, the growth of a larger gray group presents vast economic opportunities as companies address the needs of these new, empowered consumers and tap their expertise in product design, marketing, and human resources, to name a few.

Countries can’t do much to influence the pace of aging in the coming decades, but they can shape what human longevity and old age will look like. By looking across countries and outcomes, we can begin to understand what choices can be made today to shape the future of the Super Age.

In many ways, the promise of the Super Age is impressive, because it offers society one of the rare opportunities to reset and recalibrate for a new reality and to create a world that is more equitable and sustainable. However, its full potential can be realised only if long life is rethought and investments in human development are spread out over a lifetime, not just during the first quarter of life, and include older people as vital participants in all parts of the social and economic fabric of society. Imagine if the social and economic potential of the young was sidelined. That choice would cripple most economies, so why do it to older people, the fastest-growing demographic? Their immense potential will transform industry, reinvigorate economies, and remake society in ways we can only dream of.

This is an edited extract from The Super Age: Decoding Our Demographic Destiny by Bradley Schurman, published by HarperCollins Business and available now at Booktopia.