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- Generally speaking, citizens in the Northern part of the
EU are the most physically active.
- The most common reason for engaging in sport or
physical activity is to improve health (62%).
2.3 Phisical activities benefits
Lack of physical activity reinforces the occurrence of
overweight, obesity and a number of chronic conditions
such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes, which
reduce the quality of life, put people’s lives at risk and are
a burden on the health budgets and the economy.
According to the guidance documents of the World
Health Organization, the European Union and its Member
States recommend at least 30 minutes a day of moderate-
intensity physical activity for adults and the elderly.
In an urban daily physical activity, the most suitable for
seniors is walking at moderate speed.
A point worth emphasizing is that walking in an urban
environment requires a guarantee of safety which rarely
be respected in European cities due to the intensive
traffic.
3. Supports from EU Commision
PAHA (The Promoting Physical Activity and Health in
Ageing) project is a supervised and structured exercise
programme to convert currently inactive senior citizens
(55-65 years olds) into regular exercisers at a level that is
beneficial to their health.
The “ EUropean Network for Action on Ageing and
Physical Activity (EUNAAPA)” is a network to optimal
health and quality of live for older people in Europ
through physical activity.
4. The Aging Population in
Europe
4.1 European Comunity Healt Indicators Data
Population on 1 January 2015
Total. 508.224.000
Total Female: 259.953.000 (51%)
Total Male: 248.271.000 (49%)
4.2 Demograpichs
The European Union (EU) currently has to cope with
demographic decline, low natural growth and the ageing
of part of its population.
4.3 Trends and outlook
The demographic ageing is the outcome of a number of
simultaneous demographic trends:
- the average number of children per woman, which
stands at 1.5 children in the EU whereas the population
replacement level is 2.1.
- the decline in fertility (“baby crash”) which followed
the baby boom is the cause of the large proportion of
45-65 year-olds in Europe’s population, and poses a
number of problems in terms of pension funding
- life expectancy could continue to increase by a years
between 2006 and 2050 and would thus result in a
larger proportion of people surviving to the ages of
80 and 90.
These trends will slightly lower the total EU population,
which will also become much older.
This demographic trend will certainly have serious
consequences on the level of economic growth and on
the viability of public finances of EU Member States. It
also constitutes a factor that will transform the structure
of European families. ( see fig.n.1)