In addition, both social and geographical inequalities are important themes. The elderly are defined as individuals at the age of 67 or older. The report is mainly based on previously published statistics and research.
In many areas of life, the elderly are better off than they were some decades ago. Several aspects of their health have improved, such as physical mobility, grip strength and hearing. Considerably fewer in the elderly group have household incomes below the EU poverty line. A lower share feels lonely and depressed, and a larger number expresses feelings of happiness and satisfaction. At the same time, there are substantial social and geographical inequalities, and large discrepancies between younger and older age groups among the elderly. The age group above 80-85 is far more exposed to humanitarian problems than those aged 67-79. Humanitarian needs are more prevalent among the elderly living alone and being single, connected to welfare dimensions like income, health, loneliness, insecurity and violence. The elderly with low income and education are also vulnerable groups. Both low income and education are, as an example, associated with high mortality and bad health, and inequalities of mortality have increased over time. Low income and economic problems are also related to other welfare problems, such as a greater risk of experiencing loneliness. Immigration is another dimension of inequality. A substantial difference compared to other parts of the population is that immigrants more often become minimum pensioners and belong to low-income households.
While individual differences in economic circumstances do not seem to matter much, several studies have shown that income differences between geographical areas play a larger role for access to care services. Elderly people in the richest municipalities of Norway are more likely to be admitted to a nursing home than elderly in the poorest municipalities, even when controlling for differences in need. Different indicators of quality in the care sector suggest that there are large geographical inequalities concerning how the elderly care functions, Certain groups have a larger risk of experiencing unmet care needs than others. The report points to the following groups as especially vulnerable: Elderly living alone and having bad health, especially if they also have low income and live in the poorest municipalities, elderly with no next of kin or next of kin with few resources, elderly immigrants and queer, and elderly in the Sami population. How social and geographical inequalities within elderly care will develop in the future depend on a number of factors. A key factor will be to secure sufficient manpower in public elderly care, so that the increasing demands for care can be met. Without adequate public resources, the demand for care will probably to a larger extent than before be directed towards informal and market services. Projections done in Statistics Norway, on the need for manpower in the health and care sector, suggest that the increase in manyears will be substantial. An approximate zero growth, as the Health care personnel commission took as a basis, seems to be unrealistic, and could imply a risk of increasing the social and geographical inequalities in access to a satisfactory elderly care.