Ageing presents itself as one of the central problems of the XXI Century. The last decades of the past Century witnessed a continuous increasing on the number of seniors, who turned the most developed societies into ageing societies. Portugal is not an exception, actually, Portuguese population has been experiencing a demographic paradigm shift, due to an accelerated ageing of the population resulting from a fertility decline, life expectancy increasing and emigration, as well as profound social, economic and policies changing. In 1970 Ageing Index in Portugal was 34, which means that per each 100 young existed 34 elderly’s, this index grown up to 141 in 2014 (INE, 2014).

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Population data (Portugal):

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The number of people who were aged 65 and over: 2.01 millions

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The number of people aged 65 and over who were in the labor force in 2011: 70.172 persons

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The percentage of people aged 65 and over who were in the labor force in 2011: 3,34%

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The percentage of people aged 65 and over who were in poverty in 2013: 25,5%

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Source: Census 2011 (INE); EU-SILC: Rendimento e Condições de Vida 2014