Proof That Older People Are Getting Smarter
- Editor OGN Daily
- Jun 14
- 2 min read
Older people from around the age of 50 are smarter or more cognitively able today than ever before.
A new study by the International Monetary Fund - using data from 41 advanced and emerging market economies - reveals that, on average, older people from around the age of 50 are smarter or more cognitively able today than ever before.
Moreover, of all the indicators of healthy ageing (better retained agility, flexibility, strength, stamina etc), it is an improvement in our mental capacities that is most marked in the data, says the IMF.
“We aim to offer a new perspective on the old argument that ageing will lead inevitably to slumping economic growth and mounting fiscal pressures”, say Bertrand Gruss and Diaa Noureldin, lead authors of the new report. “When it comes to cognitive capacities, the 70s are indeed the new 50s: A person who was 70 in 2022 had the same cognitive health score as a 53 year old in 2000. Older workers’ physical health - such as grip strength and lung capacity - has also improved.”
The IMF aren’t the only people who have looked at this trend. A 2022 study from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the US shows that when it comes to brain power, Baby Boomers (born between 1946 to 64) beat the Greatest Generation (1901-27) on all the researchers’ key measures of cognition.
So why is the world seemingly getting smarter? Experts say that there are three key reasons. Prof Axel Börsch-Supan, director of the Munich Center for the Economics of Aging, says improvements in education have been key. Along with better nutrition. Furthermore, education and better nutrition in childhood does not just help preserve good cognition in later years but improves employment prospects. And the longer we stay in employment, with all the mental and social stimulations that brings, the better things are for our brain health.
