Understanding the Social and Economic Impacts of Ageing
LIFECON
LIFECON researchers in Seili island 2023.
Life course and economic implications of demographic change
As populations age and fertility rates fall, welfare states face growing pressure. The LIFECON project examines how demographic change impacts family life, work, and care, and how Finland can respond with cross-sectoral, data-driven research. Chief Researcher Dr Taina Leinonen, who heads the project, shared how her team transforms data into actionable insights. Across Europe and beyond, societies are undergoing a profound demographic transformation. People are living longer, and in many countries birth rates have reached low levels, and the balance between working-age populations and dependents is shifting. These trends raise urgent questions about the sustainability of welfare systems, the future of work and care, and the wellbeing of citizens across all stages of life. The LIFECON project - short for Life course and economic implications of demographic change - is established to tackle these questions head-on. Rather than treating ageing as a single issue, LIFECON examines how demographic change unfolds over the entire life course - from family formation and labour market participation to health, care, and ageing. It seeks to understand how the interlinked phases of life are affected by these shifts, and how smart, data-driven policy can help societies adapt. Led by Dr Taina Leinonen at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, the project brings together researchers from Etla Economic Research and the University of Helsinki. It is funded by the Strategic Research Council of Finland as part of the national DEMOGRAPHY programme, which supports collaborative, multidisciplinary approaches to pressing societal challenges. LIFECON views the life course as an integrated whole rather than separate phases. Research spans family formation, working life, and ageing, health and care. “Experiences in working life influence whether people have children, and the wellbeing of those children affects their longterm health, socio-demographic outcomes, and labour market attachment,” explains Dr Leinonen. “These stages are deeply interwoven - not only within individuals, but across generations.” Over the course of the project, the researchers have published more than fifty peer-reviewed scientific articles and working papers. Many of these findings are also summarised in accessible language on the project’s website, ensuring that research outcomes reach both academic and public audiences.
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For example, one study examined the impact of education on family formation and found that access to further education increases the likelihood that women form partnerships and have children by their late thirties. Interestingly, the same effect was not observed for men, offering new insights into gendered patterns of family planning and social policy. Another result focuses on public health: a LIFECON-linked study of alcohol policy reform showed that lowering the minimum legal drinking age was associated with higher longterm chronic alcohol-attributable morbidity and mortality for the cohorts affected by the new legal drinking age - demonstrating how demographic research can inform societal resilience and preventive strategies. Changing population structure in Finland: Data source for years 1974 and 2024: Official Statistics of Finland: Population structure. Helsinki: Statistics Finland. Available at: https://stat.fi/en/statistics/vaerak; Projection method for year 2074: Alho J,Valkonen T. 2024. Population of Finland, 2025–2070. ETLA Brief 148. [In Finnish] Available at: https://www.etla.fi/en/ publications/briefs/suomen-vaestokehitys-2025-2070/
Discussion event on migration in April 2025.
Project Objectives
The LIFECON project aims to provide societally relevant knowledge on how demographic changes manifest at different phases of the life course, i.e. family formation, working life, and health and care at the end of life. It also aims to understand the implications of demographic changes for the macroeconomy and public finances.
Pressures on the welfare state Like many European nations, Finland faces a lower share of working-age individuals relative to dependents. “Currently, immigration is the only factor maintaining the working-age population, and if migration continues at recent levels, the share may not decrease further for decades,” Dr Leinonen points out. The pressure is driven both by longer life expectancy and by the shifting age structure, with large cohorts now entering older age. “Fertility is difficult to shift directly, and while increased longevity is welcome, the increasing number of the oldest old people heightens long-term care demands”. LIFECON combines register-based microdata with macroeconomic modelling to assess how demographic trends strain public finances - and what policy levers might alleviate the pressure. “We can’t reverse demographic change,” Dr Leinonen remarks, “but we can adapt - by supporting longer working lives, delaying the need for intensive care, and improving the sustainability of public finances.” At the core is a commitment to grounding policy insights in real-world data. By drawing on detailed, longitudinal records, the project is able to uncover how demographic changes play out across people’s lives and across generations. The teams’ analyses rely on comprehensive register datasets from Statistics Finland, the Finnish Centre for Pensions, the Social Insurance Institution of Finland, and the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, enabling detailed tracking of socio-demographic factors,
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Project Funding health, labour market participation, and the use of social security benefits and services. “We combine individual-level data with meso-level records on families, workplaces, and regions, and link them to macro-level indicators,” says Dr Leinonen. This layering along with data spanning multiple decades allows the team to identify causal links and longterm trends - essential for policy forecasting in pensions, care, and employment planning.
Research themes and interdisciplinary collaboration LIFECON research is structured around four work packages, each led by one partner organization but involving researchers across the consortium. Many work across themes, ensuring interdisciplinarity. Family formation explores links between socioeconomic factors, work, health and changing family structures; working life focuses on career dynamics and employment interventions; ageing examines health and care in later life;
organised across the programme, increasing both visibility and societal impact. As the project progresses, the team is placing greater emphasis on making their findings accessible to decision-makers and the wider public. “Our next step is summarising key findings to inform policymaking directly,” says Dr Leinonen. One high-profile output is a book on mental health in working life by Research Professor Ari Väänänen titled “The Rise of Mental Vulnerability at Work”, which received media attention in Finland. This work, based on extensive research, demonstrates that the widespread phenomenon of mental health should also be examined critically when aiming to support sustainable working careers in an ageing Europe. Other influential outputs which have already been published so far explore topics such as the relationship between education and family formation, trends in care utilisation, and the role of migration in sustaining the
“We can’t reverse demographic change, but we can adapt by supporting longer working lives, delaying the need for intensive care, and improving the sustainability of public finances.” and welfare state resilience assesses the economic impacts of demographic change. A key factor in the project’s success is its integration of stakeholder input from the very beginning. Representatives from ministries, expert organisations, trade unions, and employers’ associations all play an active role in interpreting the findings and ensuring that the work remains practically relevant. Importantly, LIFECON is one of five research projects funded under Finland’s Strategic Research DEMOGRAPHY programme, which tackles demographic change from multiple angles. The projects actively collaborate, particularly in engaging with decision-makers. “It’s more effective when projects work together to reach policymakers rather than approaching them individually,” Dr Leinonen explains. Many webinars, workshops and communication activities have been co-
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labour force. Through these efforts, the project continues to bridge the gap between research and real-world solutions. As the project enters its final years, it aims to turn data into strategy. Moving from analysis to insight, it seeks to support smarter, fairer policies that respond to ageing societies. This means identifying risks and inefficiencies while also highlighting opportunities - such as supporting family formation, strengthening workforce resilience, and reducing health inequalities. Though rooted in Finland, LIFECON’s lessons are relevant across Europe and beyond. Many nations face similar pressures - low fertility, longer lives, shrinking labour forces - and are searching for sustainable ways to adapt. As these debates intensify, projects like LIFECON offer not only data but direction, reminding us that demographic change is about people, policies, and shared wellbeing.
The LIFECON project is funded by The Strategic Research Council of Finland: DEMOGRAPHY programme.
Project Partners
• Finnish Institute of Occupational Health • Etla Economic Research • University of Helsinki
Contact Details
Leinonen Taina Ph.D Chief researcher Finnish Institute of Occupational Health Adjunct Professor in Public Health University of Helsinki T: +358 5 0327 1723 E: Taina.Leinonen@ttl.fi : @taina_leinonen W: www.ttl.fi/lifecon W: www.demography.fi
Taina Leinonen
Taina Leinonen is a Chief researcher at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health. Her background is in social sciences with specialization in demography. She uses large register data and quantitative methods to study work disability, health and labour market participation, focusing on sociodemographic differences, trends and measures to promote work participation.
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