Abstract:

The aging of the population is a long-term trend that began in Europe several decades ago. This trend is visible in the transformation of the age structure of the population and is reflected in the growing share of elderly people in the general population, combined with the corresponding decreasing share of the working-age population. The size of the human population changes dynamically over time, depending on three demographic factors: births, deaths, and demographic flows. As people age, they undergo general changes in their bodies in the physical, physiological, and mental spheres, which changes their market behavior. The importance of recognizing the attitudes of older people in the process of purchasing products results primarily from the fact that Poland is the fastest aging country in the European Union. Poland has a serious demographic problem as the number of elderly inhabitants is constantly growing. In 2019, the number of people aged 60 was over 9.7 million, or 25.3% of the population, and in 2050 it will be almost 14 million, or 40% of the population. In the 2015 Aging Report, published by the European Commission, referring to economic and demographic forecasts up to 2060, Poland and Romania were indicated as the countries most affected by the aging of the population. Older people are perceived stereotypically as being closed to new things, with strongly shaped traditional attitudes. However, research results show that the senior segment is highly diverse. Increasingly, older consumers show interest in new products and services. The research aimed to determine the impact of subjective well-being on consumer innovation. This study was conducted in Poland in 2018 on a sample of 1,617 people.