Assessment of subjective quality of life by the older generation

The trends of the last decade regarding continuous increase in the share of the elderly in the total population are among the key social and economic challenges for the world community. The process of population ageing is characterized, among other things, by its ambiguity and unpredictability of possible consequences, not only in the social but also in the economic sphere. Domestic and foreign researchers emphasize that the processes of intensification of ageing in both developed and developing countries will only increase, and with them the contribution of older people to social development. Thus, the goal of this article is to assess the quality of life of the older generation on the basis of sociological data. The theoretical and methodological part of the article presents major scientific approaches to assessing the quality of life of the population, including representatives of older generations. The importance and need to take into account self-assessments of the older generation in the study of the quality of their lives. The empirical base of the study is the data of the sociological survey “Quality of life” conducted by the Federal State Budgetary Institution of Science “Vologda Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences” in 2016. The conclusion is made that the subjective estimates of the quality of life of the older generation are lower in contrast to the estimates of the younger population groups. It is revealed that the key obstacle to improving the quality of life of the population in retirement age is primarily their state of health. The results of the sociological survey show thatpoor health of the older generation limits the continuation of work, reduces the level of well-being, etc. The obtained estimates of the importance of different aspects of life revealed the low level of claims of this age group, which explains the higher values of satisfaction compared to the younger generation. It is concluded that it is necessary to take into account the integrated assessment of the quality of life of older cohorts in the implementation of social policy.