Welcome to TILDA
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By 2030, one in five people resident in Ireland will be 65 years or older.
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Over one third of older adults provide practical household help including shopping and household chores to their adult children and nearly half provide care to grandchildren.
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Exploding the myth that life gets worse as we age
TILDA results have shown that Quality of Life continues to improve after age 50 and peaks between the ages of 65 and 75... -
Of female children born today, over 50% are likely to survive to age 100 or beyond
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Approximately 90% of older people visit with family and friends once a week or more.
Frequency of visits increases with age, and women visit with family and friends more frequently than men. -
Depression is common among older adults in Ireland, with 10% of the population reporting clinically significant depressive symptoms with a further 18% reporting ‘sub-threshold’ levels of depression.
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Nearly 60% of people between 50 and 69 have private medical insurance, dropping to 46% for those in their 70s and 32% of those over 80.
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The average weekly household disposable income for older people is €767 but around half live on under €400 per week.
Tilda
Professor Rose Anne
Kenny
The Irish LongituDinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) is a study of a representative cohort of over 8500 people resident in Ireland aged 50+, charting their health, social and economic circumstances over a 10-year period. The second wave of data collection was completed this year. TILDA is unique amongst longitudinal studies internationally in the breadth of physical, mental health and cognitive measures collected.
The TILDA dataset has already created new employment opportunities for researchers throughout Ireland, generated employment for SMEs in Ireland and attracted considerable additional resources from international funding bodies which further create research, development and employment opportunities in Ireland.
Key findings to date emphasise the enormous contribution that older persons make to society in Ireland, major opportunities to improve health risk factors which prevent heart disease, stroke, falls and dementia, and opportunities to improve pension and financial literacy. Technology innovations are developing quick, simple tools to measure abnormal heart rhythms and early patterns of cognitive decline. TILDA researchers work closely with policy makers and NGOs to disseminate early findings and implement change to ensure that ‘Ireland will be the best place in the world to grow old.’
