5 Top Countries for Robot Care Expectations

Analysts at centers with ties to Aegon N.V. have released an 80-page report that's full of data on how 14,400 workers in 15 countries see retirement planning and income planning. The analysts have also revealed something else: how the people in those 15 countries think about home care robots. (Related: Robotics Veteran Raises Venture Capital to Build Exoskeleton) The centers are the Aegon Center for Longevity and Retirement and two nonprofit organizations that have received support from Aegon: the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies and Brazil's Instituto de Longevidade Mongeral Aegon. In addition to the United States, the countries in the centers' survey sample included Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. One of the survey questions addressed the kinds of features participants envisioned having in their own homes as they got older. The survey team provided a long list of features, including wheelchair ramps, age-friendly furniture, and two types of robots: "Robot to keep me company" and "Robot to help with chores, medication management, communication, etc." Just 10% of the participants around the world said they expect to have companion robots when they get older, but 18% said they expect to have home care robots. The percentages of participants expecting to have home care robots ranged from 10%, in the United Kingdom, up to 37%. About 12% of the U.S. participants said they expect to have home care robots. For a list of the five countries in the sample with the workers most likely to have home care robots, see the data cards in the slideshow above. — Read In Japan, the Rise of the Machines Solves Labor and Productivity, on ThinkAdvisor. — Connect with ThinkAdvisor Life/Health on LinkedIn and Twitter.