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Today's seniors are more likely to have sex and get divorced
Last reviewed: 30.06.2025
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Today's older people are having more sex and getting divorced, and they're smarter and feeling better.
The proportion of old people is growing. It is estimated that by the end of the 21st century, the average life expectancy in Europe will reach 100 years. Meanwhile, the concept of old age is gradually changing, as the 40-year-old H70 project of the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg (Sweden) shows.
It turns out, for example, that the percentage of older people who have more than a high school education has increased from 14 to almost 40 for both sexes since the 1970s. As a result, today's 70-year-olds score higher on intelligence tests than their predecessors.
The proportions of both married and divorced men have increased. Erectile dysfunction rates among older men have decreased, and both sexes are having more sex than before.
Social networks have also changed. Older people have become more sociable and have more friends in their old age.
At the same time, the state of neuropsychiatric health has remained virtually unchanged. Dementia and severe forms of depression remained at the level of the 1970s, while mild forms of depression have become slightly more common. Nevertheless, older people have become better at managing household tasks: the number of people requiring help with cleaning has fallen from 25 to 12%, and only 4 percent need help with taking a bath (versus 14% in the 1970s).
The study began in Gothenburg in 1971, examining about 1,000 people born in 1901–1902. They were followed on an ongoing basis until the last one died at the age of 105. In 2000, a new group of people born in 1930 was recruited. They are being monitored using the same methods.