On October 1, 2014 the United Nations International Day of Older Persons, HelpAge International is launching the Global AgeWatch Index 2014 ranking of 96 countries based on the social and economic wellbeing of older individuals. Norway ranks at the top of the list, while Latin America leads pensions revolution and life expectancy continues to climb. Approximately one third of the countries significantly lag behind the top performers.

The Index represents 91 percent, or nine out of 10 people, over the age of 60 throughout the world. It measures wellbeing in four distinct areas, including income security, personal capability, health and an enabling environment.

For 2014, aside from Japan (9) all of the top 10 countries fall within Western Europe, North America and Australasia. Five new countries have been added, Bangladesh, Iraq, Mozambique, Uganda and Zambia. According to the index, the worst place for an older individual is Afghanistan (96), with Mozambique (95) just above and West Bank and Gaza (94) and Malawi (93) just above.

Every region is represented in the lowest quarter, with African countries consisting of half of those with low income security rankings and poor health results. Included in this section in similar position to countries within sub-Saharan Africa and Asia are Venezuela (76), Serbia (78) and Turkey (77).

Chile (22) is first among a group of Latin American countries including Uruguay (23), Panama (24), Costa Rica (26), Mexico (30), Argentina (31), Ecuador (33) and Peru (42) that do well in the Index especially on income security.