International Longevity Centre UK (ILC UK)

Cheap has become the default setting of the global economy, writes David Sinclair – but Ed Conway’s new book on trade, and a throwaway line about sourdough, suggest older consumers might be exactly who could change that. If we’ve got enough crap, then rebuilding demand as we age may depend less on persuading people to spend and more on giving them something worth buying.

In her blog, Rosie Fogden, ILC’s Director of Health and Economic Growth, sets out why the current wave of devolution to English mayors matters for prevention and healthy ageing. Devolution of powers and financial freedoms to mayors in England is picking up speed.

How will we pay for longer lives? Who gets to enjoy them? How do we shape an economy that works for all ages? The ILC is the leading global authority on the impact of longevity on society, and we are looking for a Research Analyst to help us deliver compelling thought leadership that captures the attention of senior policy-makers in the UK and abroad. This is a role for someone who wants their analysis to improve how well society adapts to demographic change.

No two weeks in this role look the same. One day you might be drafting a letter to persuade a government minister to champion prevention; the next, building the funder case for a piece of research that hasn’t been written yet, or turning a dense set of findings into a chart a journalist can’t ignore. ILC’s Head of Storytelling and Impact will make sure our evidence reaches, and moves, the people who can act on it – policymakers, politicians, business leaders, journalists and the public.

With the new Prime Minister staking his reputation on giving power back to places, last night Professor Kate Ardern brought a practitioner’s account of what happens when you hand power back to communities. Kate delivered the third Greengross Lecture in Westminster, making a solid case for “Expert on tap rather than expert on top.” Kate served as Director of Public Health for Wigan between 2008 and 2022.

Writing from Dalian – a city of seven and a half million on China’s northeastern coast, where one in four residents are already over 60 – David Sinclair argues that healthy ageing is no longer just a health policy, it is a workforce policy. Dalian built its prosperity on human skill: language, software, back-office finance. That workforce is now shrinking, and no industrial robot replaces what made it. Prevention is the underused lever.

Join us for the 3rd annual ILC Europe Network conference, where we will be looking at how Europe can make the most of the economic opportunities of ageing to maximise the longevity dividend. At this year’s conference, we’ll be hosting three sessions: Longevity in the EU: what progress is being made to achieve longer, more prosperous lives?

Pneumococcal vaccination coverage among at-risk groups and older adults across the Asia-Pacific region is far below that needed to protect these clinically vulnerable groups, according to new findings by the International Longevity Centre UK (ILC). Pneumococcal vaccination has been a public health success for under-5s, whose pneumonia deaths in the Asia-Pacific region fell from 607,000 in 1980 to 42,000 in 2023.

Australia, Japan and Germany have all reformed the way they fund social care. A new report from the International Longevity Centre UK (ILC) draws out what England can learn from them.

Ahead of the launch of ILC’s new Atlas alongside the APEC Health Working Group in Dalian on 22 August, Patrick Swain looks at how pneumococcal vaccination across the Asia-Pacific region varies across different age cohorts and why adult vaccination is vital for healthy ageing. For over a decade, ILC has been at the forefront of the debate on vaccination.