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Mary McConnell’s article, ‘No place to grow old: Britain ranks among Europe’s worst countries for ageism’, states that a third of British citizens view people over the age of 70 as a ‘burden on health services.’ In turn, two out of five citizens feel that they have been shown ‘a lack of respect because of their age.’ Our attitudes to age seem somewhat skewed: British youth think the fountain of youth is over at 35 years compared to the Greeks’ 52 years of age.

How does it feel to be old in Britain?

McConnell states that ‘more people in Britain feel they (are) shown a lack of respect because of their age than in many other European countries, a new report has found.’ The European Social Survey, she says, is a major piece of research that is carried out across 28 countries. It shows that ‘nearly two out of five Britons claim they have been ignored or patronised because of ageist views.’

The report, which gathered statistics in 2009 and has just recently been published, took into account the views of 55,000 odd Europeans. It further shows ‘that more than half of Britons do not have a single friend over the age of 70. In contrast, two thirds of people in Portugal, Switzerland and Germany have a friend aged 70 or more,’ writes McConnell.

McConnell adds that the stats also show that in the UK ’41 per cent of people thought that people aged 70 or over contributed little to the economy and in addition 36 per cent thought that people over 70 were a burden on healthcare services.’

What about the rest of Europe?

Nicola Robinson of Age UK helped with the data analysis. She stated that, ‘Even on the perception of when old age starts, the UK is the worst in Europe in a way. She puts it this way: ‘Britons thought old age started at 59, whereas in Greece they thought it started at around 68.’

The data reveals that a vast 64 percent of British people feel that age discrimination is a ‘very serious or quite serious problem.’ France feels more discrimination, however: a whopping 68 per cent expressed concern about age discrimination.

Portugal and Norway also expressed a high percentage of perceived age discrimination. But apparently it is only in such places as Russia, Slovakia, Ukraine and the Czech Republic that the statistics get much worse.

The workplace

Half of Britons interviewed, who were 50 years or older, expressed concern about age discrimination in the workplace. They reported that employers tend to show a preference for those in their 20s.

Directgov states: ‘Age discrimination at work is unlawful in almost all types of employment. All employees and workers of any age are protected from age discrimination including partners of firms, contract workers and anyone in vocational training.’

McConnell further reports Ms Robinson as having state that it could be worse in UK because ‘we are simply more aware of it.’

Tags: women