Ageing in Place as a Governance Strategy for Inclusive Urban Planning: Comparing insights from Italy and Canada

The global demographic phenomenon of population ageing constitutes both a critical challenge and an opportunity for governance innovation, urban planning and promoting social inclusion. As of 2019, “the second largest share of older persons (aged 65 years or older) currently lives in Europe and Northern America” and the United Nations estimates that within the next twenty-five years, one in six people globally will be aged 65 years and older United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division 2019: 6. Simultaneously, cities have increasingly become the last bastion in a multi-level governance system, charged with filtering national and regional legislation into localized actions that must respond to immediate and long-term contexts. Municipal governments are therefore confronted with the Herculean task of adapting built environments, housing systems and governance frameworks to support a growing and increasingly diverse group of older adults—not only now but for decades to come.