16th May 2026

The news that Northern Ireland’s ageing population will soon outnumber children will no doubt add fuel to those forces who constantly cast the debate in terms of spurious demands to cut state pensions and create division between generations in order to divide the working class. Northern Ireland’s ageing population is not a crisis of older people - it is a crisis of political choices.

The Workers Party believes that pensioners soon outnumbering children graphically illustrates the reality that the capitalist system and society has been built around profit, not people. An ageing population is only “a problem” when healthcare, housing, social care, and education are underfunded, we should be celebrating the fact that people are living longer, not treating them like a drain on the public purse.

It is the capitalist system that constantly lobby for workers’ rights to be slashed, resulting in young people being exploited by low pay and high rents. Decades of austerity, privatisation, and underinvestment has left public services unable to cope. A society that cannot care for its elders or support its youth is a society that needs structural change, not scapegoats.

The problem is not demographics but inequalities. A society built on low pay, precarious work and privatised care can never meet people’s needs. This is the outcome of an economic system that drains communities, strips public services, and treats both young and old as commodities and therefore expendable.

This “news” is a deliberate attempt to create panic in order to justify cuts, push privatisation, and pit generations against each other. The real issue is the failure of the capitalist system to deliver for the working class.