More than 11,000 people on four continents have expressed dramatic new attitudes towards aging and retirement.

Topping the list, according to the study released by HSBC, 80 percent of the world's workers want to scrap all thoughts of mandatory retirement. The survey, conducted last fall, also found that most people want to continue doing some kind of work even after they retire. Only 21 percent said they would never want to work for pay again.

Acceptance is growing that workers will have to retire later to ease the burden on pensions and taxation, says Sir John Bond, group chairman of HSBC Holdings, which commissioned the study.
"But people are not simply expecting to work longer, now they want to mix work and leisure, learning and rest," he says. "It is critical that governments, regulators, corporations and financial institutions understand these emerging trends in behaviour and attitudes."
The Future of Retirement which surveyed workers in regions populated by more than half the world's people, covered ten countries, including Canada, the United States, the U.K., mainland China and Hong Kong, India, Mexico, France, Japan and Brazil. Among key findings of the survey:

• Later life is a time of opportunity and reinvention, rather than rest and relaxation
• Global rejection of a mandatory retirement age or any government or corporate regulation preventing older people from working in retirement
• Attitudes to aging and older people vary worldwide, with many having positive feelings towards older people and their own aging
• The role of the family is changing, with traditional structure being broken down.

The survey found that Canadians believe retirement is an opportunity for a whole new chapter in life. They are extremely optimistic about their later years, which they see as a time of reinvention, ambition, new careers and close relationships with friends and family. They view work and continued career challenges as an integral part of retirement.

According to the United Nations, the proportion of the global population over age 60 will reach one in five by 2050. "This stark, yet very welcome, statistic barely hints at the powerful and complex currents of demographic change currently sweeping the globe," Bond said in his preface to the report.

People in six of the ten countries surveyed said they would like to alternate work and leisure, though many were unsure where to get advice on planning their futures. "This lack of preparedness will jeopardize their dreams and plans for retirement," said Dorothy Sit, head of personal financial services for HSBC Bank Hong Kong.