Iran’s aging population major threat to its future
By Mahdieh Qazvinian
Staff writer
Iran is experiencing an acceleration in population aging. The proportion of people older than 60 years in Iran has exceeded 10% of the total population in 2022. While, the population growth rate in Iran is 0.7%, which is the lowest rate in the past 25 years.
Alireza Khosravi, a researcher at the Research Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies, expressed his concern about the rapid increase in Iran’s aging population in an exclusive interview with Iran Daily. He pointed out that the increase in the country’s elderly population requires some exact media planning to meet their communication needs.
Speaking at the sidelines of a symposium on the role of mass media in the elderly lifestyle held on the occasion of the International Day for Older Persons, Khosravi emphasized the important role that the media plays in communication and media planning on behalf of Iran’s older persons. However, there is a gap in the national media as it does not frequently produce special programs for the elderly, said Khosravi, who is also a university professor working in the field of communication.
One of the most important issues that arise when you get old is the relationship that develops between the elderly and their family members. So far, the country’s mass media has largely ignored the elderly and their interests. After the production of the Iranian TV series “Pedar Salar”, which was aired on national TV in the 1990s, no other series was produced that specifically cared for the elderly, Khosravi noted.
“Some steps should be taken to create appropriate programs for the elderly in the country. In producing such programs, we should be aware of what we are communicating and to which audience. It should be noted that the elderly differ in terms of their taste, attitude, needs, interests, and attention spans. The aging issue has not been discussed much in Iran. However, the public will hopefully be made more aware of the issue since the birth rate has decreased all over the world and especially in Iran while the number of the elderly has increased in the communities.”
Khosravi stressed that in producing such targeted programs, we should bear in mind that the security and peace of the elderly should not be disturbed because the elderly do not want to be separated from what they are used to. Moreover, they are looking for programs that bring them the peace that they so desire.
He added that to produce suitable programs, all economic, social, and cultural factors must be considered. The environment in which the country’s old people are living must also be given adequate attention.
To make matters more complicated, rural and urban elderly are totally different all over the world, and Iran is no exception to this. As such, the programs that are made should meet their needs and interests. For instance, the elderly who are living in rural areas of Iran typically engage in farming or animal husbandry until they have the energy to do so. It is to be expected that these older persons who are working hard in rural areas have less time to survey the media.