IELTS Writing Task 2 – In many countries, the proportion of older people is steadily increasing
In many countries, the proportion of older people is steadily increasing. Does this trend have more positive or negative effects on the society?
You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.
You should write at least 250 words.
IELTS Writing Task 2/ IELTS Essay Sample
Sample Answer 1:
Thanks to improvements in standards of living and medical advances, people’s life
expectancy has increased to an unprecedented level. This has brought many demographic
changes. Today’s society can be called a graying society. This trend has both merits and
demerits which I shall highlight in this essay. Overall, the negative effects are much more.
There would be many pros of living longer. In a way, it would be good for people who want
to see their grand-grandchildren. Old generation would be able to share more experiences
with young generations, so the youth would benefit. The families would get good support of
elders and would be able to keep their culture and traditions alive for a longer time. One
would get a chance to see frequent changes in technology and lifestyle and enjoy a life full
of comforts for more years.
On the other hand, as the people would grow old, they would go on becoming weaker and
weaker and would have to depend on their families to fulfill their needs. The families may
get tired of their responsibilities in the long run. There would be a wider generation gap,
and the old generation would get a culture shock. If people live long, then retirement would
be at an older age and it would surely lead to unemployment problems. Moreover, they
might get bored of living such a long life as there would be no goals for them.
What we have to accept is that increased life expectancy is something we have to face more
and more in the future. If proper steps are not taken then it would be a big burden on
government as it has to provide social security. The elderly are not working and so are not
paying taxes. They are totally dependent on their families and the governments.
To put it in a nutshell, I pen down saying that, even though the aging trend can bring some
benefits to the society, the cons far outweigh the pros. Therefore, effective solutions should
be found to reduce its adverse effects, especially on the productivity of the society.
Model Answer 2:
With the advancement of modern science and medical science, people are enjoying a longer life than before and in many countries people are well aware of the population growth and as a result having only one kid or two. These reasons lead the fact that in many countries, the proportion of older people is growing faster. This has both the positive and negative effects.
At first, older people are more experienced and can contribute largely by counseling the young generation. There are some professions like teaching where a experienced teacher can be more benevolent than a young teacher. Again, older people are the witness of the history and they can reviles the past to us more practically than others. Finally, since young members of a family are busy at outside and can’t manage time to share with kids, so the older people can be very good companion to those kids and can help them to raise in a family environment rather than in a day-care- centre.
On the contrary, in some society older people are considered to be burden especially in those areas where people suffer from extreme poverty. Older people require more attention and extra care and the touch of relatives. But because of generation gap and poverty, they are often ignored and that’s a horrible experience for them. Again, naturally aged people can’t do physical labor and that’s why they have very practical contribution to the society compared to their young counterparts.
Considering all the issues , though it might seem little harsh but I think that a considerable portion of older people can be helpful for all of us but if it’s reach to an extreme proportion then it’s a bad omen both for the new generation and the old people themselves.
Model Answer 3:
The elderly constitute in many countries of the world and in most of the western countries a big part of the entire population, because the birth rate is in these areas close to zero. People live healthier and as a consequence longer and there is not the so called “generation renewing”.
On the one hand, we could state that such a trend influences negatively the society, as far as pension system and labour market are concerned. People work normally for 30 years and pay the due taxes over this length of time and as soon as they retire they get their monthly pension that is supposed to be proportionate to the paid taxes. If these same people who retire live for, as an example, 30 years more, how is the system supposed to cope with that? A question that is hard to answer. Furthermore, most of the elderly keep their jobs for as long as they are able to manage and by doing so they prevent other younger people from occupying the same posts or working with the same, when not better, qualifications.
On the other hand, though the scenario seems to show no positive aspects in this trend, we can not fail to say how important older people are for our society. They support families in many ways. Firstly, single parents or parents who are occupied with their works could not manage to take care at the same time of their children without the help of their old parents. Secondly, some elderly volunteer full time and by doing so they give a lot to others and to the society as well. As we can see, these are very important roles that mainly old people decide to take on and we can not but consider them necessary.
In conclusion, we can without any doubt state that elderly remain a necessary part of the society, even though in many cases they are not considered useful, but rather an obstacle to the economical growth and to the career of younger people.
Model Answer 4:
Thanks to the technological and scientific advancements, people’s lives have become significantly progressed, particularly in improving human health with the most modern applications and effective treatments. It is inevitable that the remarkable increase in life expectancy has been a phenomenon in many countries as well as impacted both positively and negatively on their societies.
Older adults have been appreciated as the valuable and essential resource to their communities with material and immaterial contributions which benefit the younger. The increased longevity might create many time opportunities for those who still eager to pursue their working or researching passion for societal development, encouraging the young generations to inherit and attempt more for further success. The retirement age has been adjusted in most of working fields in order that the elderly can work longer with their contributing expectation, particularly the working year maximum of 60 for men and that of 55 for women.
In spite of significant values that the elderly can bring to the society, there are some negative implications which might put the government and the whole community under financial and healthcare pressure. The more people retire, the heavier pension burden the state has to carry. After a certain period of time for working, whether their living standards are better, they still have right to receive social welfare from their government. Therefore, many countries consequently take more consideration into budget distribution for this section. Additionally, the increasing amount of older adults is more likely to exacerbate overpopulation worldwide, which will lead to many overloaded facilities as hospitals, retirement homes and housing provision.
The constant proliferation in aging population has been obviously creating both benefits and burdens to their societies. Therefore, the government in every country should implement aging-friendly policies and efficient programs so as to mitigate this issue’s negative influences and still progress people’s standards of living.
Model Answer 5:
The demographic shifts will have a huge impact on almost every aspect of public life. And this has become a serious concern to many countries. Personally, i believe the detrimental effect of the challenge outweighs the positive effect.
Advocates in favour of this phenomenon indicate that older people can provide more valuable experiences and skills to the communities. For example, people find elders are good at teaching and consulting because of their highly skilled communication skills and sound academic knowledge. Thus, it is often the case that most of the primary schools tend to recruit aged employees for a better teaching quality. Apart from that, the ageing population leads to the extension of working life, thereby reducing the demand for pensions
On the other hand, however, it is the negative influence of this social phenomenon that worries people the most. Firstly, the demographic shift is believed to have a strong correlation with the rising unemployment figures. With the number of elders grows, which promotes the country to raise the statutory retirement age. Thus, an increasing number of young graduates are less likely to seek unemployment. Secondly, another problem associated with an ageing society is that health care costs will escalate, imposing a burden on tax payers. For instance, the government is required to allocate more budgets for age-care centre facilities, and qualified workers.
In brief, the considerable extension of life expectancy has been regarded as the major contributing factor to unemployment and ever-increased health care expenses. Nevertheless, elders can make efforts to the society through their skills and experiences.
Model Answer 6:
It is undeniably believed that the developed technology and sufficient welfare have magnificently provided a great chance for having mankind life extended. Combining with the fact that young couples tend not to breed, elderly individuals are now occupying an increasing percentage of the world population. Supported by a number of sociologists and economists, ageing population issue will generate negative impacts on the world such as enlarging the government expenditure and reducing the workforce efficiency.
First of all, subsidizing senior citizens costs governments and tax-payers massive amount of money. For instance, it was stated by The Economist that pension is now the largest expense of social welfare budget of European governments. Despite the advantages it brings, this amount of expenditure is an insurmountable burden to the government deficit and can therefore, slow down the growth of national economy. Hence, a high proportion of ageing population can do harm to already harsh national economy, especially during the recent economic recession in Europe. Additionally, ageing population can also reduce the efficiency of labour force.
Going into details, according to The Economist, one senior citizen needs two or more juniors to be taken care of, particularly the sick. As a result, looking after ageing people expends a great amount of labour forces which could otherwise profit companies and governments. Therefore, provided that labour force could be emancipated from caring the elderly, a more efficient and productive society could thereby created.
To sum up, it is evident that the positive effects of high aged ratio are more in comparison of its negative impacts.
Model Answer 7:
In my opinion, the increasing number of older people has more negative impacts on the society. Such trend slows down the development of economy and put heavy burdens on the society.
Admittedly, the increasing number of the elderly contributes to the stabilization of the society. It is generally believed that, the more elderly there are, the lower crime rate in that region will be. In addition, with abundant hands-on experiences, the elderly can pass on their experiences to the next generation.They can help youngers to avoid unnecessary mistakes the youth would otherwise make in the workplace and daily life.
However, an aging society posts a threat to the economy in the society. With more elderly people, the proportion of workforce in the population is decreasing, thereby, decreasing the productivity and social efficiency of the society as a whole. Moreover, the development of innovative industry and Information Technology secure a good future of the economic well-being. However, the elderly are usually too conservative to handle these jobs.
Furthermore, excessive elderly people put medical and financial burdens on the society too. With less workforce and taxpayers, the demand of medical care is increasing. The elderly need to go to visit hospitals more frequent than the young do. Therefore, the demand for doctors, nurses and medical facilities will eventually outweigh that of supply, due to less workforce and taxpayers. Meanwhile, same theory applies to the individual families that each family need to shoulder more responsibilities of taking care of the elderly.
In conclusion, the drawbacks of the aging problem outweigh its merits, as it slows down the development of economy and put medical and financial burden on the society.
Model Answer 8:
It is true that in some countries the number of senior people is growing steadily. It is undeniable that the issue has some benefits and drawbacks, but I personally believe that it has more drawbacks and the following essay will discuss about them in details.
On the one hand, the increasing number of older people in a country shows some positive aspects. Firstly, it means that the healthcare system in the country is quite high, economic condition of the people is better and citizens have better lifestyle than those in other countries. Senior people with better economic conditions are able to purchase healthier foods and consume enough vitamins, which are essential for maintaining their health level. Secondly, it also shows that the government has successfully provided a better medication for the senior people. As the quality of the public health services improves, it means that more and more old people are being fairly treated. Consequently, they could maintain their health level and have a longer life expectancy. Some sectors like teaching, research and politics require extensive experience and the older people in such countries can contribute to these sectors.
On the other hand, the growing number of senior citizens also has some negative consequences. As the number of the old people increases, the government has to provide a higher budget for retirement houses and medical services. These funds are collected from taxes from other citizens. If the ratio of older people increases in a country, then the percentage of working class people decreases and that has a direct impact on economic progress of the country. Lastly, the country will also face population density problem. As the medication and health facilities improve, mortality rate of the country also increase, and it would cause a serious population problem for the country.
In conclusion, despite of all the advantages, increasing number of senior people in a country has some disadvantages as well. I personally believe that a country should focus on maintaining a balanced ratio for the population of different age groups.
When a person reaches an age where they are no longer able to support their own living, the government intervenes to provide financial assistance. This assistance comes in the form of welfare payments, which are collected from tax payers. An increasing number of older people will mean more tax must be collected in order to support . For example, if the number of elderly people doubles in a year, a tax payer who currently pays $10,000 per year might have to pay $20,000 in the following year to support the welfare of this older population. This is a negative trend as more young people will thus become liable for the living expenses of an increasingly aging population.
At the same time, however, it must also be acknowledged that elders are valuable assets to society, capable of imparting important values such as wisdom and knowledge. The younger generations are often lacking these values as they usually come as a result of many years of experience. An example of this can be commonly found when a troubled youth seeks advice from someone much older than them. Therefore, older people can have significant positive effects on the society and individuals.
In conclusion, the benefits the elderly population provide far outweigh the drawbacks. Moreover, it must be remembered that eventually everyone becomes older and will get the same compensation under the existing system. Therefore, this trend should be viewed as more positive to society.
In present-day society, there is an increase in the proportion of elderly due to the improved healthcare.Well equipped medical facility extends a person’s live, however, the rising number of senior citizens have more negative effects on the society.
It is universally acknowledged that the growth in the proportion of senior citizens brings burden on the governments. In many countries, governments need to spend more money on healthcare system due to the rising needs. Sometimes, this may causes the governments put in less efforts on education or other areas as dozens of money is required on the infrastructure and “old homes”. Furthermore, elderly tend to receive pensions every month in many countries. This will causes the young workers feel dissatisfied and strike which lead further financial problems to the governments.
An upward trend of the proportion of elderly brings burden on families too. When there is less youth in a family, the stress level will be increased as he or she have heavy responsibility. In addition, while families have more elderly to care for, less resources will be given to their children. Besides this, countries’s work force will be decreased, thus many countries face financial crisis and working adults need to pay more and more taxes until they have enough trouble paying their own basic needs. Further, the age of retirement will extend a few years more.
To sum up, ageing population is an unchangeable trend in contemporary society, thus it is essential for the governments to pinpoint the effective remedies.
Model Answer 11:
The increase of percentage of elderly would lead to economic slump. Initially, employers would complain that they could not find sufficient young workers, not to mention qualified ones. Thus factories and companies, especially those labour demanding industries, may find it difficult to expand their business and also their local markets may shrink. What’s worse, factories tend to move to places with sufficient labour force. Due to aging problem, the payment for local young workers would be much higher than that for abundant young people who are eager for jobs in other regions. Consequently, the remaining local young people might stay unemployed due to less opportunities.
The phenomenon would pose a heavy financial burden on government. Firstly, the pension system would endure serious challenge from the old.Usually old people retired from work do not have any source of money income to cover their daily living expenditure, so the authorities have to take the responsibilities to ensure them decent lives. Secondly, medical system would suffer from treating enormous old people, for the reason that old people are more vulnerable to changing of ambient environments and diseases. As a result much more budget are required to promote the infrastructure, facilities and nursing in hospitals. And lastly, besides the physical problems they might also undergo mental illness, because old people who do not have any offspring may feel lonely and helpless. Thus government need to invest extra money in curing psychological problems.
All in all, a dysfunctional society would appear if aging problems become apparent.
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