Throughout the last decades, the average life expectancy has kept increasing on a global level. However, existing inequalities between sociodemographic groups are mirrored in the aging process – even within Europe. Under the headline “European Day of Demography”, a number of European and national institutions organized a public debate on population disparities in healthy ageing in February 2023. The invited guests included Dubravka Šuica, Vice-President of the European Commission for Democracy and Demography, and Prof. Dr. Axel Börsch-Supan, managing director of SHARE, who has largely dedicated his research to the economic and health dimensions of demographic change. The event took place in Berlin, Germany and opened opportunity for scientific, political and public exchange.