The first survey for older population is under way in Estonia

“No thorough surveys of older population have been conducted in Estonia so far,” said Ms Merle Paats, Head of the Social Surveys Service of Statistics Estonia. According to Ms Paats, some information about older people’s health, working, coping and expenditures is available in other surveys of Statistics Estonia, but the increase in the share of older people in the society has led to the need to study more thoroughly the economic and social coping and social network of persons aged 50 and older. “The society must adapt to population ageing, as ageing society means the increasing need for social and health care services, growing social protection expenditures and decrease in the labour force,” added Ms Luule Sakkeus, Director of the Institute of Estonian Demography of Tallinn University, research partner of the survey.

SHARE survey is conducted in Estonia from 18 November this year until the spring 2011. Population aged 50 and older as well as their spouses or partners living with them are interviewed during the survey. “All 4,200 persons included in the survey are notified in advance by Statistics Estonia,” remarked Ms Paats.

People included in the survey will be interviewed by interviewers of Statistics Estonia who have passed the special training. “The collected data will be processed and used only in generalised form, while publishing the results they will not be associated with any respondent in any way,” added Ms Paats.

In Europe SHARE survey is conducted for the fourth time and also in the future the respondents are interviewed every two years, whereas some respondents are the same who participated in the survey in previous years. Estonia joins the survey this year and we have planned to continue with the survey similarly to other countries. This is the way how the survey provides consistent data for monitoring the population ageing processes and policy effects in Estonia and enables comparable analysis with other European countries.

Estonia is one of the fastest ageing countries in Europe. As of 1 January 2010, 36% of population were aged 50 and older; ten years ago their share accounted for 33%. Today older population in Estonia, compared other European countries, are longer active on the labour market, but at the same time their health is in worse condition. “According to the data of the 2009 Social Survey, more than a quarter of persons aged over 50 years rated their health poor or very poor,” noted Ms Merle Paats.

In Estonia SHARE survey is organised by Statistics Estonia in collaboration with the Ministry of Social Affairs, Tallinn University, National Institute for Health Development and Estonian Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics. The survey is financed by the European Commission and Ministry of Social Affairs. The results of the survey will be published by Statistics Estonia at the end of 2011.

Additional information on SHARE: http://www.share-project.org