The shopping cart changes due to the aging of the population
It is becoming more common to go out on the street, walk through the park and see more older people walking than minors. The fact that women increasingly have fewer children and at later ages is causing a aging of the population that is showing more and more in details of our lives.
Even the shopping basket of the Spanish is a symptom of this aging. This is shown by the study Global Consumer Life where the products that we take home reveal this change in the population of this country.
Healthier basket
The authors of this study point out that the fact that the number of over 65 years It has caused fresh produce and vegetables. The consumption of fruits has grown by 8.6% and that of vegetables by 4.5%. Articles that help people prevent heart disease and hypertension also appear more in the shopping cart.
This is because at these ages the elderly take more care of their health to avoid as far as possible the aches and pains of age. But if the vegetables and fruits have increased, other items have decreased. For example, milk, a product that is less used by adults because they do not need as much calcium as children do.
Also surprising is the inclusion of other items in the shopping cart such as hyaluronic acid or collagen. An answer to the fear of the elderly to lose mental or physical faculties due to the passing of the years, as well as a concern for their physical appearance that does not exist in those homes with children where the shopping basket focuses fully on the More smalls.
Worrying situation
In addition to the change in the shopping cart, the aging of the population is causing other more serious situations such as negative growth. In fact, in Spain there have already been more deaths than births, a situation that did not occur since the Civil war. However, now there is no conflict situation that explains this context.
As can be seen in the data offered by the Statistics National Institute, INE, births decreased by 2%, deaths increased by 6.7%, resulting in a difference of 4.7 percentage points. In particular, in Spain a total of 419,109 children were born during 2015, that is, 8,486 births less than in the previous year. Compared with the 2008 data when 519,779 births were registered, the reduction was 19.4 percentage points.
For its part, Spain registered a total of 422,276 deaths, which represents a growth of 6.7% compared to 2014. If we compare the data on deaths and births in our borders, we observe that a total of 2,753 deaths were registered more than births. This has meant that our country registers a negative vegetative balance.
Damián Montero
