Data Associated with: Panorama de envejecimiento y dependencia en América Latina y el Caribe

Data from the associated Policy Brief. The accelerated aging process that countries in Latin America and the Caribbean are undergoing imposes unprecedented pressures on the long-term care sector. In this context, the growing demand for care from the elderly population occurs alongside a reduction in the availability of informal care. Governments in the region must prepare to address these pressures by supporting the provision of care services to alleviate social exclusion in old age. The Inter-American Development Bank has created an Observatory on Aging and Care — the focus of this policy brief — aimed at providing decision-makers with information to design policies based on available empirical evidence. In this initial phase, the Observatory seeks to document the demographic situation of countries in the region, the health of their elderly population, their limitations and dependency status, as well as their main socioeconomic characteristics. The goal is to estimate the care needs countries in the region will face. This brief summarizes the key findings from an initial analysis of the data. The results highlight the scale of the problem. The figures speak for themselves: in the region, 11% of the population aged 60 and older is dependent. Both the magnitude and intensity of dependency increase with age. Women are the most affected across all age groups. This policy brief is part of a series of studies on dependency care, including works by Caruso, Galiani, and Ibarrarán (2017); Medellín et al. (2018); López-Ortega (2018); and Aranco and Sorio (2018).