Dalian, People’s Republic of China// – Low-tech, low-cost strategies could prevent 400 million falls at home, 8.5 million new type 2 diabetes cases and 2.4 million dementia cases by 2040, while unlocking $5.8 trillion in healthcare savings and $645 billion in productivity gains.
Yet much of that opportunity remains unrealised because governments and businesses manage health, finances and labour participation separately, a new World Economic Forum report finds.
The Longevity Dividend: The Business Case for Linking Health and Wealth, developed with Marsh, analysed prevention strategies in 21 countries to show how three low-cost measures – access to hearing aids, simple home safety improvements and physical activity programmes – could unlock massive savings by 2040.
Hidden economic costs
Poor health strains healthcare systems and personal finances, impacting financial resilience and creating wider economic costs. Women who spend just one year caregiving, for instance, face a 24% reduction in retirement savings due to time away from the workforce, combined with the gender pay gap. Yet institutions often address these challenges separately, despite their growing economic consequences.
“Longevity is not about getting old,” said Haleh Nazeri, Lead, Longevity Economy at the World Economic Forum. “Harnessing this multi-trillion-dollar shift requires governments, businesses and individuals to begin addressing physical and financial health together. This can strengthen financial resilience, reduce healthcare costs and increase productivity across economies.”
Where prevention makes the biggest difference
The report identifies three areas where prevention could deliver substantial economic returns while improving population health.
Falls prevention: Home safety as public health infrastructure
Home safety offers one of the clearest examples of the economic value of prevention. Simple retrofits, such as rug tape, stair lighting, and grab bars, could prevent nearly 400 million falls at home by 2040 and deliver more than $5 trillion in cumulative healthcare savings globally, compared with less than $400 billion in upfront global investment to retrofit homes for at-risk older adults.
Falls in particular can trigger cascading health complications and long-term care needs. Preventing them reduces caregiving burdens that disproportionately affect women, keeping millions in the workforce and protecting $363 billion in lifetime earnings and financial security that would otherwise be lost. In Saudi Arabia, home retrofitting could prevent 330,000 falls by 2040 and save $3.8 billion in healthcare costs.
Physical activity and diabetes prevention: Where scale matters most
A second major factor is type 2 diabetes prevention, particularly at scale. Globally, 8.5 million new diabetes cases could be prevented by 2040 through community programmes supported by the World Health Organisation that promote physical activity, at a cost of approximately $1-$40 per person.
This approach would return over $125 billion in productivity gains and $85 billion in healthcare savings. China has the largest single-country opportunity identified in the analysis: diabetes prevention could add 16 million healthy years for people aged 50+, showing what is possible when prevention is prioritised.
Hearing aid access and dementia prevention
The third measure is expanding hearing aid access to reduce the risk of dementia. Research increasingly links hearing loss to developing dementia, yet fewer than 20% of the estimated 400 million people with hearing loss have access to hearing aids, according to the WHO.
Beyond dementia prevention, hearing aids enable communication, social connection and independence in later years. Globally, scaling hearing aid access could prevent 2.4 million dementia cases and generate over $325 billion in healthcare savings by 2040.
For high-income countries, this intervention alone recoups its full costs. The Netherlands demonstrates the opportunity: expanding hearing aid access could prevent over 8,000 dementia cases and save the healthcare system $2 billion.
These three measures illustrate the potential when health and financial outcomes are addressed as interconnected challenges rather than separate policy domains.
The institutional opportunity
The economic case is clear. To capture the opportunity, governments can better align health, finance and labour policies and budgets around prevention and healthy ageing, while employers can prioritise physical activity and caregiving support for their workforce. Public-private collaboration will also be needed to scale successful approaches across economies.
“Longevity affects every generation, every industry and every economy,” said Pat Tomlinson, President and CEO of Mercer, a Marsh business. “Our research shows that when leaders act early – breaking down silos between health, finance and labour – they can unlock economic growth, improve wellbeing and create lasting value for businesses, governments and society as a whole.”
About the report methodology
The report’s quantitative analysis identifies the economic impacts of longevity interventions in 21 countries. The countries, specifically selected for regional, developmental and age diversity, are: Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Croatia, France, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Nigeria, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States and Viet Nam.
