WHO Study on global AGEing and adult health (SAGE)WHO’s SAGE is a longitudinal study collecting data on adults aged 50 years and older, plus a smaller comparison sample of adults aged 18–49 years, from nationally representative samples in China, Ghana, India, Mexico, Russian Federation and South Africa. Datasets from studies conducted from 2000 through 2014 are available, with more being added as information is collected.
The Gateway to Global Aging Data: This data and information platform was developed to facilitate cross-country analyses using the Health and Retirement Study family of surveys. The Gateway has compiled and indexed metadata enabling users to quickly find consistent information across surveys for more than 30 countries and across waves of individual surveys.
According to the global age watch index, Switzerland tops the list when it comes to how well its aging population fares. How does the rest of the world rank? The 2015 index provides tables, maps and tools to compare results of various countries. There are also infographics focused specifically on older women, methodology reports and other data to explore.
RAND’s Survey Meta Data Repository has statistics on health, demographics, social determinants, economics and other factors can be compared and contrasted across countries and years in easy-to-understand tables, charts and graphs. Numerous research papers on health and socioeconomics are available, The Survey Meta Data Repository is a collection of HRS-family survey data. It includes a digital library of survey questions, a search engine for finding comparable questions across the surveys, and a set of identically defined variables for cross-country analysis. RAND’s Health and Retirement Study is a main source of the data.
Global AgeWatch Index 2013: In what they say is a first-of-its-kind study, the Global AgeWatch Index 2013 ranks the wellbeing of aging individuals around the world. Using the indicators of income security, health status, employment and education, and enabling environment, HelpAge International ranked more than 90 countries worldwide based upon data gathered from various international datasets.
The U.S. ranks eighth overall, scoring high in the education and employment categories, However, the U.S. is just 36th of 91 in the income security category and 24th in the health category. When comparing health status alone, it’s perhaps not surprising that the U.S. ranks below Canada, Sweden, Japan, or Australia, but it also fares more poorly than Israel, Cyprus, Costa Rica and Equador, and just barely above Panama and Columbia.
The site provides interactive tools to create visualizations and compare countries. Report cards on each nation are accessible for a more detailed breakdown of Global Age Watch rankings. Data for each country is also available for download.