The Economic Benefit of Promoting Healthy Ageing and Community Care

Population ageing is one of the most consequential demographic shifts of the coming decades, with profound implications for health systems, labor markets, public finances, and social cohesion. As the share of people aged 65 and over grows across OECD countries, the pressure on long-term care systems intensifies — yet the economic case for investing in prevention and community-based care as alternatives to institutional care has often been underexplored in policy debate. This OECD report addresses that gap directly, quantifying the returns from promoting healthy ageing and shifting care delivery toward community settings.

The analysis examines a range of interventions across the life course that support healthy ageing, from physical activity programs and chronic disease management to social participation initiatives and home-based care models. It models the economic consequences of current trajectories against scenarios in which countries scale evidence-based interventions, and finds that proactive investment in healthy ageing generates measurable returns through reduced institutional care costs, increased labor force participation among older adults and their caregivers, and lower healthcare expenditure from prevented or delayed chronic conditions.

The report also examines the comparative performance of community care models relative to institutional care, finding that well-designed home- and community-based services can deliver equivalent or better outcomes at lower cost for many conditions. It highlights the policy, financing, and workforce conditions required for community care to function effectively at scale, and identifies the barriers, including fragmented funding streams, workforce shortages, and inadequate care coordination, that limit its expansion in many countries.

The findings offer a practical framework for governments seeking to reshape long-term care systems ahead of demographic pressures, making the case that investment in healthy ageing and community care is not a cost to be deferred but an economic necessity and that early action generates compounding returns relative to reactive spending on institutional care.