The German population is projected to decline by more than 10 percent until 2050. At the same time, the number of old people will continue growing. Thus, the ratio between old and working-age people will keep on increasing — which leads to challenges for the social insurance systems for pensions, health care, and long-term care.

However, the changing size and composition of the population is not affecting all parts of Germany in a uniform way. Some regions are facing particular challenges due to a rapidly ageing population and dwindling human resources in the care sectors. The Leibniz ScienceCampus "Health care challenges in regions with declining and ageing populations" will address these challenges and focus on the provision of health care in areas which are particularly hard hit by demographic change, such as rural areas and the Ruhr metropolitan region.

The Leibniz ScienceCampus has three main goals:

1. Explore causes of regional variation in the demand and supply of health care and assess their consequences for health policy

2. Analyse different arrangements for the supply of health care and LTC which encourage a more efficient use of scarce resources

3. Evaluate measures that reduce the demand for health care and LTC, thus alleviating scarcities of resources in demographically declining regions

Spokesperson
Dr Dörte Heger
RWI - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research, Essen
T +49 201 8149 285
doerte.heger@rwi-essen.de
Spokesperson (deputy)
Anna Werbeck
RWI - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research, Essen
T +49 201 8149 271
anna.werbeck@rwi-essen.de
Coordinator
Lea Bergmann
RWI - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research, Essen
T +49 201 8149 358
lea.bergmann@rwi-essen.de
Coordinator
Christian Speckemeier
University of Duisburg-Essen
T +49 201 183 3885
christian.speckemeier@uni-due.de