Links to the scientific articles: 

- W. Sanderson, S. Scherbov, "Prospective Longevity. A new vision of population aging", Harvard University Press (2019);

- W. Sanderson, S. Scherbov, “Rethinking age and aging”, Population Bulletin, 63, 4, pp. 3-16 (2008); 

- W. Sanderson, S. Scherbov, “Remeasuring aging”, Science, 329, pp. 1287-1288 (2010); 

For the United Nations, an elderly person is anyone over 65. But it's a hundred-year-old definition. Today, life expectancy is higher; in first-world countries, a 65-year-old may be able to blow out another 25 candles, while octogenarians are climbing Everest. Who is really old, then? We asked Sergei Scherbov, deputy director of the World Population Program (POP) at IIASA, director of demographic analysis at the Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital, and leader of the Population Dynamics and Forecasting Research Group at the Vienna Institute of Demography (VID), Austrian Academy of Sciences. Here his proposal for a dynamic "old age threshold". In 5 minutes, with the interviews of NaspRead!

Interview and editing: Giulia Riva

Italian version: Gianluca Pozzoni