The proof that older people are getting smarter

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20 hours ago

Fitter, faster, stronger – and smarter. I'm paraphrasing, but that's how researchers at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently summed up the Baby Boom generation in a recent report on the consequences of global ageing.
The developed world may be running out of lithe young things to drive our economies forward as birth rates collapse, but the oldies that remain are brainier than any generation before and can pick up at least some of the slack, it said.
The IMF's findings rely on data from 41 advanced and emerging market economies and show 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 Great Generation (1901-27) on all the researchers' key measures of cognition.
'We found better age-adjusted performance in the cognitive domains of processing speed, executive function, attention and verbal fluency in more recent generations compared to the Greatest Generation', said its authors.
So why is the world seemingly getting smarter? Professor Axel Börsch-Supan, director of the Munich Center for the Economics of Aging (MEA) at the Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy in Munich, said improvements in education have been key.
'That [Boomers] are smarter is essentially a function of their much better education than earlier generations', he says. 'If you look at the years of schooling, that immensely increased in Europe, particularly in the Mediterranean countries, but also in the North and the East.'
Education and better nutrition in childhood does not just help preserve good cognition in later years but improves employment prospects. And the longer you stay in employment, with all the mental and social stimulations that brings, the better things are for our brain health. Given the proportion of over 65s participating in the UK labour market has been slowly rising, and has more than doubled since 2000 participation was at 7.8 per cent over the first three months of that year, increasing to 15.7 per cent in 2025), no wonder our mental fire power is improving.
Further Department of Work and Pensions data reveals that in the UK, 10 per cent of 70 to 74-year-olds were still in employment in 2024 (up from 5 per cent in 1984) as were over a quarter of 65 to 69s (27.6 per cent, up from 9.5 per cent in 1984). In 2024, the average age of people exiting the workforce hit its highest level since the 1960s (65.7 years old) and its highest level on record for women (at 64.5 years).
On June 7 The Oxford University Longevity Project will gather for the Smart Ageing Summit 2025 in Rhodes House in the heart of Oxford. The meeting brings together leading longevity experts and enthusiasts from around the world to explore 'how we can age smarter and better now'.
Leading lights include the runner and academic Sir Christopher Ball, 90, the father of the pace maker Professor Denis Noble, 88, and the broadcaster Angela Rippon, 80.
Physician Sir Muir Gray, 80, a director of the Longevity Project and a pioneer in the area of evidence-based ageing, said the first thing to grasp about ageing is that 'ageing by itself' is not the problem. Instead 'controllable factors' including loss of fitness (mental and physical) and environmentally-linked disease were the things to look out for.
'The trick to healthy ageing is for all of us to have a plan', says Gray. 'A plan to understand ageing, a plan to regain lost fitness, a plan to reduce the risk of disease striking, a plan to better adapt to your environment… It's knowledge that's the elixir of life.
'In the 12 years since my myocardial infarction [heart attack], I've had 400 boxes of pills and not one prescription of exercise or diet from the NHS. The pills keep me going but it's all the other stuff that keeps me young,' he says.
'All the other stuff' includes the internet – Gray believes it has contributed to gains in cognition by keeping older people engaged with the world. The same applies not just to staying in the labour market for longer, but particularly to career changes – an increasingly common phenomenon that forces us to start over again in our learning and greatly broadens our knowledge and experience.
Volunteering has a similar impact. 'Becoming a volunteer is a very good way of reducing your risk of dementia,' says Gray, because, as with staying in the labour market, it allows you to keep yourself 'mentally and physically challenged' by keeping you engaged with society and your local community.
The threat of dementia is the perfect reason to heed Gray's call for people to better understand the process of ageing and plan for it. Only around 60 per cent of it is caused by Alzheimer's, leaving 40 per cent linked to behavioural and environmental factors – many of which we can avoid or mitigate.
According to Gray, this also includes looking after your vascular heath through regular exercise; a good diet and the avoidance of binge drinking, smoking etc; and protecting the brain tissue from damage 'caused by stress, sleep problems and over medication'.
Working has already proved its cognitive worth: a 2020 study by the Fisher Center for Alzheimer's Research Foundation in the US found that American women who had paying jobs as young adults into middle age had slower rates of age-related memory decline than women who didn't, while women who did not have much paid work between the ages of 16 and 50 tended to have faster declines in memory later in life.
Medical understanding had also completely changed in a generation, says Gray: 'we know now we can form new neural circuits at any age, whereas doctors who qualified before 2000 were taught that after 20 all that happened was that brain cells died off'.
Until recently there has also been prejudice in the medical establishment, says Gray – some of it quite subtle.
'The effects of ageing on intellectual capacity have been greatly exaggerated because researchers have used tests that concentrate on quick decision-making, which does slow with age. But quick decision-making is only needed in pub quizzes and landing planes and [now] AI will do it for you. We actually get better at complex decision making as we live longer. As Oscar Wilde said, 'experience is the name we give our mistakes!''
But while the trend from the Greatest Generation to the Baby Boom generation shows an uptick in brain power, there are important caveats and nuances. Although the IMF points to an average gain in cognition worldwide, there are outliers who are faring less well, particularly in disadvantaged groups among Generation X (born between 1965 and 1980).
'Average health scores are significantly lower for individuals in rural locations, individuals with at most primary education, and lower-wealth households', says the IMF. 'Further analysis reveals that lifestyle factors, such as levels of physical activity, body mass index, and smoking, are significant determinants of the functional capacity of older individuals [even] after age and socioeconomic characteristics are controlled for.'
'The biggest changes in the UK are in the lower [socio economic] groups,' agrees Börsch-Supan. 'There's definitely a social gradient and it has a lot to do with health behaviours, nutrition and the big disaster of cheap prefab food. Look at the pizza which you buy for a pound – they're really bad quality.'
In short, the trend can only continue if we don't sit on our laurels. Only those people cycling to work each day, climbing stairs or going to night classes will get a boost in the smart charts. To gain personally, you've got to put in the hard yards (and plenty of fruit and veg) yourself.
Still, as the rest of the world continues to get smarter, the Boomer generation are the poster boys: it's why Mick Jagger, 81, and Iggy Pop, 78, are still touring. We just need to be wealthy, clean-living, gainfully employed and well connected to make it last.
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