Creating age-friendly cities

By 2050, 89% of the UK’s population will live in cities and 24% will be aged over 65. Older people participate in society in many ways and are estimated to contribute between £40bn and £61bn a year to the UK economy. As the number of older people living in cities increases, there is growing recognition that cities need to become ‘age-friendly’ to help people remain independent and active as they age, and improve the quality of life and health of older people.

Key points in this POSTnote include:

• The UK population is ageing and many older people are living in major towns and cities.
• Age-friendly cities aim to support active and healthy living into older age. Twelve cities in the UK are members of a global network of age-friendly cities.
• The physical environment plays a key role in making cities better places for older people. Research shows that accessibility and safety are important factors in making housing, outdoor spaces and transport more age-friendly.
• There is a lack of robust evidence about the effectiveness of proposed interventions.
• Challenges for delivering age-friendly cities include negative public attitudes towards older people, infrastructure costs and a lack of skills and coordination in local planning.

Acknowledgements

POSTnotes are based on literature reviews and interviews with a range of stakeholders and are externally peer reviewed. POST would like to thank interviewees and peer reviewers for kindly giving up their time during the preparation of this briefing, including:

• Máire Cox, University of Edinburgh*
• Catherine Foot, Centre for Ageing Better
• David Sinclair, International Longevity Centre*
• Claudia Wood, Demos
• Paul McGarry, Manchester City Council
• Damian Utton, Pozzoni Architects*
• Chris Whitty, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
• Toby Williamson, Mental Health Foundation
• Kellie Payne, Campaign to End Loneliness
• Marcus Ormerod and Rita Newton, University of Salford*
• Stephen Burke, United for All Ages
• Jeremy Hughes and Emma Bould, Alzheimer’s Society*
• James Goodwin, Age UK*
• Anthea Tinker, Kings College London*
• Sarah Harper, Oxford Institute of Population Ageing*
• Chris Phillipson, University of Manchester*
• Nick Tyler, University College London*
• Professor Phil Blythe, Chief Scientific Adviser, Department for Transport*
• Rebecca Jones, Government Office for Science*
• Mehboob Umarji, Department for Communities and Local Government*

*Denotes people who acted as external reviewers of the briefing.