PJSC Sberbank : Almost 25% of Russians believe secret of eternal youth will be revealed in the next 50 years

A Rabota.ru and SberNPF study polling 5,000+ Rabota.ru users over the age of 18 from across Russia has revealed if people believe science will defeat aging in the near future and if life expectancy will change in the next 20-50 years.

One in ten respondents reported that science would defeat aging in the next 10-20 years. Another 13% of the respondents stated it could happen in the next 50 years. Forty-two per cent of respondents believe this is a matter of the distant future, while 35% stated that it was not going to happen at all.

When asked a multiple-choice question if they used the available technology for rejuvenation and driving life expectancy up, slightly under one-half of Russians (46%) claimed they were doing nothing to live longer and 32% said they were using such technology sporadically. Twenty-two per cent of the respondents live a healthy lifestyle, eat square meals, and do sport regularly. Another 6% said they were taking special meds and nutritional supplements, 5% were practicing yogameditation, etc., while 3% have special cosmetic procedures regularly.

Half of the polled Russians (50%) don't expect they would live to see scientists unravel the secrets of eternal youth, 27% also believe they are unlikely to see scientists do that. However, 14% believe they will indeed live to see science defeat aging and 9% claimed they were likely to do so.

According to 15% of Russians, life expectancy might somewhat increase (by a couple of years) in the next 20-50 years. Another 15% believe that life span could add 5-10 years, 3% said it could double to reach 150-200 years; one in five survey participants (21%) stated that life expectancy would not change at all, while 34% claimed it would go down in the next 20-50 years.

When asked about their retirement age should life expectancy be much higher, a quarter (26%) said they could work until they turned 80 years old. Another 5% said they could work until 100 years and 7% said they could work until 120. Nearly one-half of the respondents (46%) said that even if they were long-livers, they would still want to retire at the age of 60 (women) or 65 (men), the way current laws allow to.

When asked if they would be well off with their current earnings to last until 150 years of age, more than one-half of Russians (69%) said 'no'. Eleven per cent of those who said 'yes' claimed their government pension would be enough, 9% would count on their savings, and 1% would rely on a life-long pension by the employer. One in ten Russians believe that money will be cancelled by the time life expectancy reaches 150 years, so no earnings would be necessary.

Survey results show that most respondents try not to look far into the future. When answering a hypothetical question about the money that they could last on until they reach the age of 150 years, many do not know the answer. Meanwhile, technology and medicine are developing by leaps and bounds, the quality of life is improving, and the chances of becoming long-livers are increasing. Therefore, so that your standard of living does not change after you retire, you should take care of your future well-being in advance and have reserves for years to come. To begin with, I recommend you learn your state pension. There is a special feature on the SberBank Online mobile application (the Investments and Pensions section, the Pension and SberNPF Services tab) for that, showing how much money you would receive from the state if you retired today. Using this very app, you can activate a long-term savings instrument. I'm talking about an individual pension plan which, with regular replenishment, will allow you to receive a significant increase in your pension.

AlexanderZaretsky

CEO, NPF of Sberbank