Watching the UK Get Older - What Effect on Government Finances?

Found on the BBC website Maps chart UK's ageing population this brilliant animated map (compare the map to Statistics Canada's yawn-inducing text Population Projections for Canada, Provinces and Territories) that shows the steady ageing process as the years roll on. Starting from 1992 and projected to 2031, the inexorable slow ageing process is visually striking as the map gets more and more of the darker coloured areas indicating the ageing. Whether the measure is median population age or 65 and older, the pattern is the same. Increasing longevity is evident too as the over 85s triple their share of population.

One interesting phenomenon is that there was not much change through the 1990s but suddenly around 2002 the phalanx of those of State Pension Age or older begins to rise from 18.3% of the population to 19.5% by 2010. That's over 730,000 extra people potentially drawing State Pension. It surely doesn't help government finances. Just as a period of negative market returns is a bad time to start drawing on one's retirement portfolio, so it is for a country, except that the UK government has no choice.