Cities for All Ages

While cities across the OECD typically have younger populations than in rural areas, they are ageing rapidly. Between 2000 and 2022, the number of people aged 65 and older per 100 working-age (20-64 years old) people increased in urban agglomerations of all 35 OECD member countries with available data. This share is projected to rise from 20.9% in 2020 to 27.9% by 2040 on average across 29 OECD countries. Meanwhile, many large cities continue to grow and attract the young.

Cities that fail to be age‑inclusive, i.e. those that do not address the needs of people of all ages in urban planning and policies, are likely to face significant social and economic costs. These include higher risks of poor health, loneliness, isolation and poverty, and associated higher public expenditures for older residents, reduced educational and social opportunities for children and reduced attractiveness for the young, with consequences for the labour market and productivity growth.

By embodying an age-inclusive approach in urban policy making, governments can promote access to opportunities for residents at every stage of life, but also advance on broader goals such as competitiveness, environmental sustainability and social cohesion, delivering many win-win outcomes. Efforts to create cities for all ages are already underway in many cities, focusing on three key policy areas:

• Urban design and land use planning to enhance access to opportunities, services and jobs and to improve safety, sustainability, equity and well-being outcomes, including through better transport. Cities like Barranquilla and Bogotá, Colombia, are redesigning urban space with mixed‑use development and expanded green spaces, including for children and older adults.

• Targeted housing provision to help young people and parents find affordable homes near schools, work, services and cultural hubs and enable older adults to age in place. Cities are redeveloping brownfield sites for age-specific needs, like co-housing for residents under 35 (Bologna, Italy) and senior supportive housing (New Orleans, United States), optimising housing provision through “rightsizing” (Cork, Ireland) and intergenerational house-sharing initiatives (Baltimore, United States), and subsidising the renovation of old flats designed for students (Greece) and older adults (MaPrimeAdapt’ in France) to help specific age groups attain affordable and accessible urban housing.

• Strengthening the local economy by integrating young and older adults as workers and consumers, supporting job creation and cultural attractiveness. Providing older adults with reskilling programmes, as in Greater Manchester (United Kingdom), extends workforce participation and reduces health costs. Investing in digital health solutions, including for older adults such as in Barcelona, Spain, can stimulate the “silver economy” and create jobs for younger people. Cities such as Kusatsu, Japan, focus on quality tertiary education to retain young talent, while Mannheim, Germany, promotes nightlife and cultural spaces to attract working-age residents and boost economic growth.

Based on an analysis of local and national government initiatives across these three policy areas, the following checklist offers concrete recommendations for creating age-inclusive cities. It provides a structured approach for governments at all levels to develop and strengthen policies to build cities for all ages around three action areas:

• Strategy setting

  • Prioritise inclusive and flexible urban planning. Cities should assess the impact of various urban planning approaches on all age groups and create technical guidelines to ensure age-based needs are integrated into local development. Universal design practices should be implemented across all levels of government to enhance accessibility in public spaces.

  • Support age-targeted housing solutions. Governments can introduce mandatory accessibility standards for housing, such as requiring wheelchair-accessible door widths in new residential buildings and incentivise the development of age-inclusive housing, such as efficient co-housing units, to make cities more affordable for young people. While stricter standards may incur costs, these should be offset by benefits such as prolonged autonomy among older adults, ultimately leading to long-term savings in healthcare spending.

  • Facilitate solutions from private and third sectors to deliver tailored services and job opportunities for young and older adults. Governments can work with public, private and social sector stakeholders, e.g. through incubators and innovation hubs, to design products and services that meet the needs of all age groups, improving their quality of life. Cities can also offer upskilling and reskilling programmes, support silver entrepreneurship, establish consortia to identify skills needs and place trainees, and incentivise businesses to hire younger and older workers, such as with tax credits, subsidies and training support.

• Resource development

  • Mobilise financing for age-inclusive cities. Governments can foster public-private partnerships and offer financial incentives to developers creating age-inclusive solutions. Public land or subsidies can help increase suitable housing for older residents, and land‑based finance tools can support age-targeted housing supply. Promoting the social economy and co-financing models locally can further drive age-inclusive investment. Short‑term costs should become revenue-neutral or positive over the long term compared to costs of inaction, e.g. increased health spending on older adults and reduced economic output.

  • Promote capacity-building on age-inclusive planning. Governments should provide resources and training to public officials to evaluate and enhance the age-inclusiveness of their city and policies, ensuring staff are equipped with skills to promote age-inclusiveness.

  • Produce and analyse age-specific data. National and local governments can disaggregate economic and social data by age groups, refining national and local surveys to capture diverse experiences. Qualitative methods such as group walks through cities with different age groups can help policy makers identify and “age-proof” urban space differently. Digital twins, which are virtual replication models of cities, can simulate how different age groups interact with the built environment, helping test and refine policies before implementation.

• Stakeholder co-ordination

  • Mainstream age-inclusive policy making. Governments should align policies across sectors and levels to unlock barriers to age-inclusive cities in areas such as housing, transport and social services. For example, an inter-ministerial committee could address care sector labour shortages to create more accessible and inclusive cities. Inter-municipal co‑ordination among administrations within functional urban areas can improve accessibility, e.g. through shared design standards of public transport across municipalities.

  • Engage all age groups in city design. Cities can use methods such as co-design, co‑planning, participatory budgeting and advisory boards for different age groups, engaging children and older adults in urban planning processes. For instance, city governments can collaborate with schools in consultations for designing new playgrounds.

  • Share good practices and pilot-proven ideas through collaborating with other cities. City networks can exchange and pilot age-friendly policies proven to be effective elsewhere.