[Can the costs of future needs of health and social services for the elderly be calculated?].

As a consequence of the increasing number of elderly people, the proportion of people of working age (20-65) vs. the oldest-old (80+) will decrease considerably. Today, the total annual cost for the care of the elderly (health care and social services) in Sweden is about SEK 110 billion (about 6% of the GNP). The costs of health care are better correlated with the number of remaining years of life than with number of years from birth. The cost of health care during the last year in life is higher for the oldest-old than for the young-old. Informal care of demented persons is about 4-5 times more extensive than formal care. There is a strong correlation between GNP per citizen and resources spent on health care.