The study by Eurostat looked in particular at the impact on ageing on the "highly qualified section of the labour force" with the "stock of human resources in science and technology (HRST)... one way of measuring this."
Researchers found of the 85m HRST aged 25-64 in the EU, almost 40% were in the higher age range. They estimated Bulgaria, Finland, Germany and Sweden having the highest proportion of senior HRST, while Spain and Ireland had the lowest.
The country that came out top, Bulgaria, had a share of senior HRST that accounted for nearly half of their total HRST population. The reason for this, and other other countries which were near the top, was because the post-war baby boomers growing old.
Spain and Ireland had the lowest proportion of senior HRST, at around 30 per cent, as well as a high number of HRST in the 25-34 age range. Reasons for this included the fact that both those countries have the larger shares of 25-34 year olds compared to the other EU countries.
The study also showed the difference between male and female senior HRST was decreasing, from 44.3% in 2001 to 46.7% in 2006. The gap between the total HRST aged 25-64 also decreased, from 48.3% in 2001 to exactly 50% in 2006.
Researchers also looked at HRST job mobility, which is considered to be a way of stimulating a countries economy as the result of knowledge transfer. Denmark, Iceland and the UK had the highest job to job mobility, due to flexible labour markets, while Hungary, Greece and Slovenia had the lowest.
The report concludes that "job to job mobility for HRST tends to decrease with age" and that "when approaching the end of a career, people often feel comfortable with what they have and are not willing to risk that by changing their work environment".
The report also refers to a Japanese report, that indicated that rapid aging of Japanese society had increased the proportion of middle-aged and senior citizens in scientific professions.
The Annual Report on the Promotion of Science and Technology in Japan forecast "the number of researchers and engineers will decrease rapidly, both in numbers and in proportion to the total population, due to the trend of fewer children and aging population".
They recommended thinking of ways to let existing scientists work, by offering favourable working conditions and incentives.
