How Active Are European Seniors—Their Personal Ways to Active Ageing? Is Seniors’ Activity in Line with the Expectations of the Active Ageing Strategy?

Abstract

The study is directed towards the growing importance of active ageing (AA). Active ageing is a concept proposed in 1990 to recognise not only factors related to health care but also other factors influencing the ageing of individuals and populations. In the following years, as the needs of the ageing societies and the possibilities of meeting these needs increased, Healthy Ageing was defined. Active ageing is one of the areas of care for older people in the Decade for Healthy Ageing. In the study, we referred to the pillars of the AA strategy and the active ageing index (AAI) guidelines. Research on active ageing is gaining momentum in conjunction with pursuing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 2030 Agenda), especially in social inclusion. The aim of our study was to compare EU countries in terms of seniors’ subjective assessment of AA-related activities and to check whether the similarities and differences in the ratings of seniors from different countries changed in 2020 compared to 2018. As we did not want seniors to participate in a survey directly focused on AA, we chose the European Social Survey database (ESS is a cross-national, representative survey conducted every two years across Europe since 2001), ensuring that the sample was representative. We used questions not directly related to AA. We conducted the analysis by gender and two age groups (65–74 and 75+). In the analysis, we used Kaufman–Rousseeuw normalisation and Ward’s method for clustering. Our analysis resulted in four classifications in each study run. We identified groups of countries where respondents’ assessments are similar. In addition, we identified recurring patterns of behaviour corresponding to AA.