Prospective Longevity
A New Vision of Population Aging
- English
- PDF
- Available on iOS & Android
About this book
From two leading experts, a revolutionary new way to think about and measure aging.
Aging is a complex phenomenon. We usually think of chronological age as a benchmark, but it is actually a backward way of defining lifespan. It tells us how long we've lived so far, but what about the rest of our lives?
In this pathbreaking book, Warren C. Sanderson and Sergei Scherbov provide a new way to measure individual and population aging. Instead of counting how many years we've lived, we should think about the number of years we have left, our "prospective age." Two people who share the same chronological age probably have different prospective ages, because one will outlive the other. Combining their forward-thinking measure of our remaining years with other health metrics, Sanderson and Scherbov show how we can generate better demographic estimates, which inform better policies. Measuring prospective age helps make sense of observed patterns of survival, reorients understanding of health in old age, and clarifies the burden of old-age dependency. The metric also brings valuable data to debates over equitable intergenerational pensions.
Sanderson and Scherbov's pioneering model has already been adopted by the United Nations. Prospective Longevity offers us all an opportunity to rethink aging, so that we can make the right choices for our societal and economic health.
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Contents
- Introduction
- 1. A Brief History of Measures of Population Aging
- 2. Prospective Ages
- 3. How Old Do You Need to Be to Be Old?
- 4. How Different Are Measures of Population Aging Based on Chronological and Prospective Age?
- 5. Determining Ages Based on the Characteristics of People
- 6. The Stage of Old Age
- 7. Is the Quality of Life in Old Age Getting Worse?
- 8. Survival Trajectories: Russian Regions and US States
- 9. The α-Gender Gap in Survival
- 10. What Would Happen to Population Aging If Life Expectancy Increase Sped Up?
- 11. If Life Expectancy Continues to Increase, Will Population Aging Ever Stop?
- 12. Intergenerationally Equitable Normal Pension Ages
- 13. Choosing Which Pair of Glasses to Wear
- Conclusion
- Glossary
- References
- Acknowledgments
- Index