The Chinese fate of the scorpion, like any other, is true. So when you see the face of a ghost in a place that questions you, Mexico is an old country; It is clear that the social and economic conditions of the country offer its people the opportunity to live again in peace, security and hope. The old man in Mexico is clearly experiencing a central contradiction: while the state announces reduced and extended pensions, more than a thousand people live in poverty, hardship, precarious health and, in thousands of cases, loneliness and abandonment.
In 2025, Mexico has 17.1 million people aged 60 or older (12.8 percent of the total population). Six thousand Alrededors are between the ages of 60 and 64, while 4.5 million are between the ages of 65 and 69. There are three thousand people in the 70 to 74 age group and two thousand people in the 75 to 79 age group. Finally, 80-year-old mayors are older than 2.5 million Mexicans. By 2030, the largest adults are estimated to exceed 20 million people (about 15 percent of the population).
How does this significant population live or survive in our country when the possibility of employment, which for many was their identity and livelihood, is being lost? The labor market is exclusive to old people: informality and discrimination for those who want to work in precarious employment, forced inactivity or retirement.
Along with this comes economic insecurity and the dependence of family members, while access to health is also reduced, often requiring care, round-the-clock attention, medicines that are not always guaranteed in the public system. Coneval’s multidimensional health medicine emphasizes the relationship between health problems and living conditions, which explains why many older adults face chronic conditions without adequate coverage.
There is one less important thing: loneliness. It doesn’t appear in stadiums, but it’s the same. Family families are fragmented by migration, the precariousness that forces them to earn a living, the erosion of community. There are countless day care centers for the elderly and support programs (outside of Inapam); the institutional response is fragmentary. Solitude and abandonment are lesser known dimensions, but equal to mortal ones. A rare public culture often translates this solidarity into politics: day centers, psychosocial support and community leaders are still insufficient.
At the national level, the Institute reported that by 2024 it would replace six thousand people in the extremely poor category. Recent doctors from Coneval previously said that more than three thousand of these people are from the third age, including more adults in a situation of poverty, although this is partial and requires transparency and regular updating.
Pensión para el Bienestar was presented as a necessary contribution: more than 12 million adult mayors currently own the beneficiaries. Pension is an unapologetic gesture of redistributive justice, but it is not a panacea. It does not replace comprehensive medical care, rehabilitation, home care or much-needed companionship. In public consultations, hope is broad; in pharmacies, the prices are bar prices. The old man has turned into a time of emotional and economic survival, observe the energy.
More than the social pension, approximately six thousand people in Mexico receive contributory pensions from public institutions (IMSS, ISSSTE, Pemex, CFE and other systems). The IMSS concentrates most contributory pensions: an estimated 4 to 4.8 million people receive a pension each time one or more benefits are required through this institution. ISSSTE, which takes care of workers in the state (including UNAM and the education sector), has approximately one to 1.3 million retirees and jubilees.
Special systems like Pemex are fewer in absolute terms but generally have higher pensions; Beneficiaries are estimated to be between 150 and 300 million people. Other public schemes – including CFE, the armed forces and special regimes of various bodies – bring in between 200 million and an average of one million pensioners. Summarizing these estimates, the approximate total number of people receiving contributory pensions from public institutions ranges from 6.2 to 7 million beneficiaries. Many of these recipients of other pensions also receive the Pensión del Bienestar due to its universal character.
This Pensión del Bienestar paid six thousand 400 pesos a month this year. In fact, the pension ratio in Mexico is a thousand pesos per month in IMSS and a new thousand pesos per month in ISSSTE, although the employee insists that the months vary greatly according to the regime, paid years and basic salary. If you have recently started a pension review on ISSSTE in an attempt to determine the maximum peak, there may be many differences in perception that may lead to the search for 40 million pesos per month.
The plea is more urgent, the ghost says to her in venenoso: is this the old country? If being old means being dependent on handouts, which are necessary to cover the basics but not to cure the ailments and pains of old age, it also means living without opportunities for gainful work and peace of mind, the answer is clear. It is not just about raising mountains: it is about thinking about the dignity of people, men and women, considering them in their humanity and thinking about the pain of their illness. From now on, it will be possible to design a real country or territory for old people, from which to base policies that integrate health, employment, life and social integrity.
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