Here are some statistics about older people in the UK published by MHRA.org

Even though your health can decline as you age, many older people remain healthy and active long into their older age.

• At age 65, men in England can expect to live on average another 8.9 years in good health, and women another 9.8 years in good health – just under half of their expected remaining life span. These figures have decreased over the past few years.
• Around 4 million older people (40% of people aged 65 and over) have a limiting long-term illness or disability, and it is estimated that this will rise to over 6 million older people by 2030.
• Around 850,000 people (most of whom are aged 50 or over) are living with dementia in the UK, and Alzheimer's UK predicts that this figure will rise to 1 million people by 2025. Of these, around a third (288,000) are currently living in residential care settings.

Loneliness and low mental wellbeing is a problem for many older people:

• 24% of people aged over 60 stated they felt lonely sometimes or often; this equates to just over 3 million people in the UK population (source: English Longitudinal Study of Ageing).
• Around 850,000 people (most of whom are aged 50 or over) are living with dementia in the UK, and Alzheimer's UK predicts that this figure will rise to 1 million people by 2025. Of these, around a third (288,000) are currently living in residential care settings.

A survey carried out for Age UK in 2017 revealed that nearly half of adults (7.7million) aged 55+ said they had experienced depression and around the same number (7.3 million) have suffered with anxiety.

• 24% of people aged over 60 stated they felt lonely sometimes or often; this equates to just over 3 million people in the UK population (source: English Longitudinal Study of Ageing).
• A survey carried out for Age UK in 2017 revealed that nearly half of adults (7.7million) aged 55+ said they had experienced depression and around the same number (7.3 million) have suffered with anxiety.
• Nearly three-quarters of older people think that having more opportunities to connect with other people would be the best way to help people who are experiencing mental health problems (source: Age UK survey, 2017). MHA Communities services offer opportunities such as this.

Older people provide a large amount of volunteer time to support organisations across the UK.

• In 2016, the Royal Voluntary Service found that 46% of people aged 55-74 were volunteers - a total of 6.2 million people. This equated to 1.4 billion hours of volunteer time per year (949 million hours of informal volunteering and 4,634 million hours of formal volunteering time).

The number of people living in specialist retirement housing or in care homes is relatively low; most older people live in their own homes:

• According to LaingBuisson (2018), there are 11,109 care homes for older people and those living with dementia. Of these, 42% (4,632) were registered nursing homes.
• Approximately 418,000 people live in care homes (Laing and Buisson survey 2016). This is 4% of the total population aged 65 years and over, rising to 15% of those aged 85 or more.
• 167,000 people are receiving specialist dementia care in care homes – around 40% of the total care home population.
• There are no definite statistics on the number of people living in retirement housing. However, according to the Elderly Accommodation Counsel, in June 2019 there were 730,000 retirement housing units across the UK.

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