How today’s aging population can stimulate portfolio growth

“Our data shows that people aged 65 years and over were just under 5% of the world’s population in 1960,” said Sen Sharma. “By 2050, that number is supposed to be about 22% of the world’s population. So, that’s a dramatic change that impacts a number of different areas of society.”

He said the aging population is going to impact housing, sanitation, nutrition, and urbanization, including transportation as more personal service is need.

Helathcare will also become more than a defensive sector as obesity, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes increases and the wealthier aging population uses more services since its healthcare spending per capita is correlated to the gross domestic product.

Innovation is also pushing healthcare. So, Sen Sharma said remote healthcare and telemedicine were “supercharged by COVID” with virtual health visits growing by more than 3,000%. Wearable technology is allowing diabetics to track their blood sugar or people who fall to get help. The internet allows the industry to collect all of a patient’s health care data and analytics to identify social and individual tends. Personalized medicine, based on genomics and artificial intelligence, is also optimizing drugs and reducing side effects for individual patients, especially reducing the likelihood of painkiller addiction.

Sen Sharma said Indxx’s Global X Aging Population Aging Population Index, launched in 2016, tracks which U.S. products, but has steadily grown.