Slovakia to see its population grow older dramatically in near future

Slovakia is set to see its population grow older rapidly in the years to come, as numerous generations will enter into retirement age, the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAV)'s Prognostics Institute has stated in a prognosis of Slovakia's population up to 2030. "The average age of our population will exceed 40 years in 2015, and by 2025 it should come close to 43 years. It's predicted that by 2018 the group made up of the elderly will be larger than the one of children, with this trend to prevail to 2030," stated the institute, adding that the population ageing has been influenced by the increasing life expectancy at birth, which has reached 72.47 years of age in the case of men and 79.45 year with women. In addition, the document is also based on data recorded by the Statistics Office, according to which there were 733,136 senior citizens in Slovakia as of the end of 2013, which amounts to 13.54 percent. This represented a year-on-year hike of 3.1 percent. The institute further reported that it estimates the country's population will increase slightly to 5.56 million by 2030. According to data of the Statistics Office, there were 5.413 million people in Slovakia at the end of 2013.