Assessment of the Standard of Living of Retired People in Uganda: A Case Study of Wakiso District

Abstract

This study was conducted in Wakiso District. The purpose of the study was to assess the standards of living of retired people in Uganda using the case study of Wakiso District. The objective of the study was to establish the relationship between age, gender, education level of a retired person and number of children possessed by a retired person and their standards of living. The research methodology for the study was descriptive survey research design. The sample size was 100 retirees and purposive sampling was applied in selecting the retirees who were included in the sample. The researcher used questionnaires to collect data and data was analysed SPSS version 20.The results of the study indicated that 40.6% of the respondents were aged 65 and above years, followed by 24.0% of the respondents who were aged between 55 and 59 years and only 15.6% were aged between 50 and 54 years and revealed the existence of a significant relationship between the ages of the retired people and their standard of living (r=0.822, pvalue= 0.005). Study results also indicated that the majority of the respondents (53.1%)who had retired were of post-secondary level, followed by 24.0% who had completed secondary level while only 2.1% of them had not completed even primary and that there is a significant relationship between the education level of the retired people and their standard of living (r=0.520, p-value=0.044). Study results showed that the majority of respondents were males (58.3%), while the rest were females (41.7%) and that there is no significant relationship between the gender of the retired people and their standard of living (r=0.027, p-value=0.792). The study findings also revealed that there is a significant relationship between the number of children possessed by retired people and their standard of living (r=-0.326, p-value=0.000). The study concluded that there is a significant relationship between age, education level of a retired person and number of children possessed by a retired person and their standards of living. The study recommended people should produce manageable number of children so as to increase their chances of living a good standard life even after retiring from work and that people should also endeavor to attain higher levels of education as much as possible since most educated retirees are more likely to live a good life as compared to less educated ones.