TEHRAN - Senior tourism has been added by Iran as the ninth domain to the age-friendly city international project run by the World Health Organization.

The project currently includes transportation, social participation, civic participation, employment, respect and social inclusion, housing, communication, and information.

Age-friendly communities are places where age is not a barrier to living well and where the environment, activities, and services support and enable older people to have opportunities to enjoy life and feel well.

“Concerning Iran’s transition into an aging country, its geography, and ecosystem, we will do our best to register senior tourism as the ninth domain of the age-friendly city in the World Health Organization,” IRNA quoted Mojgan Rezazadeh, the head of the secretariat of the National Council of the Elderly, as saying.

In October 2024, Rezazadeh said that the national document for creating age-friendly environments across the country has taken effect.

“The world’s population, especially in developing countries, is growing old, and Iran is no exception. The percentage of the elderly population in the country has increased from five percent in 1976 to about 10.5 percent, reaching around 9 million people,” IRNA quoted Rezazadeh as saying.

The document works towards improving physical and social environments to become better places for the elderly.

It is compiled in three parts: Principles of indicators and criteria of the strategic plan of an age-friendly city, holding workshops on how to prepare a strategic document for an age-friendly city, and planning indicators for an age-friendly city.

Each province should develop a strategic provincial document based on their environment, and implement the program with the cooperation of the member institutions and the strong participation of municipalities and governor-general offices in each city, Rezazadeh stated.

She went on to say that the needed training will be carried out step by step with domestic experts and international consultants to monitor it.

Currently, Tehran, Gilan, Isfahan, East Azarbaijan, West Azarbaijan, Lorestan, Hamedan, and Bushehr are the nine pilot provinces of the project, IRNA quoted Rezazadeh as saying in January.

In the next 30 years, the population aged 60 years or older is projected to hold a 32 percent share of the whole population, that is, the elderly will account for one-third of Iran’s population by 2050, the official noted.

Currently, men and women aged above 60 constitute some 11.5 percent of Iran’s population, an official with the health ministry has said.

For the time being, elderly women account for 52.3 percent of the total population, outnumbering men (47.7 percent), ISNA quoted Saber Jabbari as saying.

MT/MG