Aging Populations
Aging populations refer to a demographic trend characterized by a growing proportion of elderly individuals within a population. This phenomenon is often attributed to declining birth rates and increased life expectancy. It has significant implications for healthcare, social welfare, and economic systems, as it can lead to a greater demand for elderly care and pension provisions, as well as potential labor force shortages.
8 Key excerpts on "Aging Populations"
eBook - ePubThe Social Context of Ageing
A Textbook of Gerontology
- Christina Victor(Author)
- 2004(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...These arguments taken together have been used to describe what Jefferys (1983) termed the 'moral panic' of population ageing which focus upon the perceived 'burden' which the increased numbers of older people will impose upon the state and younger people. Another way of describing this negative perspective is apocalyptic demography (Vincent, 1999) — the perception that we will be overwhelmed in social, political and welfare terms by the increasing numbers of old people. In this chapter we examine the demographic trends which have brought about the growth in the number of older people in society by considering how populations 'age' and examining ways of measuring 'population ageing'. We then describe the demographic characteristics of the older section of the population and consider how the characteristics of this segment of society may change in future decades. The majority of the data presented relate to the United Kingdom, but many of the points raised have a wider resonance and parallels may be drawn with many countries in Europe, the Americas and Australasia. Hence the changing of the age profile of the population towards an increase in the number and proportion of older people is not unique to the United Kingdom but has a much wider resonance. The ageing of populations Demography is concerned with describing, analysing and understanding trends in the structure of populations. In this context populations are usually defined in terms of nation-states as these are the units for which data are collected, but demographic analysis may be undertaken with various subsets of national populations such as regions, counties or specially constituted populations such as inner cities (or rural areas). The structure of a given population is rarely static as the relationship between the key drivers of demographic change; birth rates, death rates and migration are highly fluid and subject to considerable variation over time...
eBook - ePub- Lenard W. Kaye, Lenard W. Kaye(Authors)
- 2021(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...The majority of rural populations are clustered in the vicinity of metro areas given historical settlement on farms and in mill towns to produce goods for nearby urban centers (U.S. Census Bureau, 2019). However, communities, regions, and states vary widely in how rural they are, as do the natural climates, topographies, demographics, sociocultural fabrics, and local economies of these areas (Krout, 2017). Thus, the experiences and needs of older adults in rural communities also vary widely. Geographic Implications for Rural Aging Populations Given increased risk for multiple health conditions and reduced mobility (including losing the ability to drive), older adults may be particularly susceptible to and influenced by their rural surroundings. Commonly cited geographic challenges are that distances to destinations are greater and places more isolated. This makes it more difficult to access and secure resources necessary for health and quality of later life, including housing, healthy foods, transportation services, social opportunities, health care, caregiving, and community services (Skoufalos et al., 2017). Rural older adults’ spaces of care are more likely to encompass voluntary sector or informal supports as a result, including delivery of goods, services, and care by family members and friends (Bascu et al., 2012). With out-migration of younger generations for education and employment, however, older adults are less likely to have proximal connections to assist with care and services (Skinner & Winterton, 2018). This socio-geographic isolation coupled with the dispersion and relative lack of infrastructure, services, and amenities often results in significant social isolation for rural older adults (Kaye, 2017)...
...The chapter first reviews the development of population ageing, defining in the process what is meant by the term ‘ageing societies’. It goes on to survey contrasts between different societies – both within high-income countries and in comparison with low-income countries of the global south. We will also consider gender and social class variations in life expectancy, and the rise of the very elderly population (including the increasing number of centenarians). The discussion then places population change within a sociological context, examining questions about the link between the development of ageing and individual beliefs and attitudes. Finally, the chapter considers a theme which will be returned to at various stages throughout the book: Why are ageing populations often presented as a ‘problem’? What is the historical context for this? What alternative arguments might be developed in response to such views? Population ageing in the twenty-first century The ageing of populations was one of the most important developments of the twentieth century and will raise major challenges for life in the twenty-first. The proportion of the global population aged 65 and over in 1900 was 1 per cent (UK 5 per cent); in 2000 it was 7 per cent (UK 16 per cent) and by 2050 it is estimated that it will be 20 per cent, a figure that the UK is likely to reach in 2020. Population ageing refers to both the increase in the average (median) age of the population and the increase in the number and proportion of older people in the population. This change arises during the move from a demographic regime of high fertility and high mortality to one of low fertility and relatively low mortality. The former is associated with fast-growing young populations; the latter with more stable populations including a larger proportion of people in the older age groups...
eBook - ePub- Mark Novak(Author)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Demographers use three measures of population aging: the absolute number of older people in a society, the median age of the population, and the increased proportion of older people. Population change occurs due to migration, deaths, and births. The decline in the fertility rate is the major cause of population aging in the United States today. Demographers divide the older population into subgroups. They refer to young-, middle-, and old-old. Each of these groups has unique needs. Internal migration has led to a shift in the proportions of the older population in different parts of the United States. We see decreases in the proportion of older people in the Northeast and increases in the proportion of older people in the South, Midwest, and West. People tend to move for three reasons in old age. Gerontologists call the first type of move a retirement move, the second type a moderate disability move, and the third type a major chronic disability move. Two things account for the greater number of women to men at every age in later life during most of the 20th century. First, better health care for women during their childbearing and middle years. Second, increases in cigarette smoking and work-related diseases for men. Current trends show an improvement in life expectancy for men. This will lead to more similar numbers of men and women in old age in the future. Demographic studies show an increase in the elderly dependency ratio. Some researchers believe that this increase will lead to a future crisis in the cost of services for older people. Other researchers believe that the older population will lead society to a better use of resources. Most gerontologists agree that U.S. society needs to prepare for an aging population. New policies and new approaches to services can meet the challenges of population aging. The oldest members of the Baby Boom generation turned 60 in 2005. This generation will enter old age in large numbers in the next 30 years...
eBook - ePubAn Introduction to Population Geographies
Lives Across Space
- Holly R. Barcus, Keith Halfacree(Authors)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...There is a clear prima facie case for the discipline of Demography : “the scientific study of the size, composition, and distribution of human populations and their changes resulting from fertility, mortality, and migration” (Poston and Bouvier 2010: 3). Births, deaths and human migrations between locations across the globe certainly require measurement, presentation and discussion, and future trends predicted. But whilst Demography also involves itself with the causes of the patterns, trends and magnitudes it identifies—“the factors that affect these components” (Poston and Bouvier 2010: 3)—a more dedicated emphasis on their contextualized spatial expression has become the focus of Population Geography. 1.2.2 … across real places Population Geography can be defined initially as the study of “the geographical organization of population and how and why this matters to society” (Bailey 2005: 1). An immediate illustration of how such a spatial lens is both significant and important comes, once again, via some simple demographic facts about the state of the world today (developed more fully in Chapter 3). Consider infant mortality rates (10.3.1) in a small selection of countries in Asia and Europe, shown in Table 1.1. First, even across these ten countries there is a considerable range of values. This is true even within the same continent, such as the contrast between Romania and Norway in Europe. Second, although there is a general trend towards declining infant mortality, countries such as Mongolia and India retain extremely high rates. Furthermore, many countries affected by civil strife, such as Afghanistan, Congo or Iraq, are understandably unable to provide data. Thus, Table 1.1 is biased in favor of countries experiencing relative political stability...
eBook - ePubArchitectural Research Addressing Societal Challenges Volume 1
Proceedings of the EAAE ARCC 10th International Conference (EAAE ARCC 2016), 15-18 June 2016, Lisbon, Portugal
- Manuel Jorge Rodrigues Couceiro da Costa, Filipa Roseta, Susana Couceiro da Costa, Joana Pestana Lages, Manuel Jorge Rodrigues Couceiro da Costa, Filipa Roseta, Susana Couceiro da Costa, Joana Pestana Lages(Authors)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- CRC Press(Publisher)
...Moreover, the research identifies a housing stock that represents a possible resource for a more inclusive habitat. 1 INTRODUCTION The world is rapidly ageing: the number of people aged 60 and over as a proportion of the global population will double from 11% in 2006 to 22% by 2050. By then, for the first time in human history there will be more elders than young (aged 0–14 years) in the population (World Health Organization 2007). According to the United Nations Population Fund (2007), “developing countries are ageing at a much faster rate than developed countries: within five decades, just over 80% of the world’s older people will be living in developing countries compared with 60% in 2005. The older population is growing from far more rapidly–in 2007 expanding by 2.6 percent per year–than the population as a whole–at 1.1 percent.” Population ageing has been described by demographers as the result of two humanity’s greatest victories: increased longevity, or victory over death and disease; and reduced birth rates, or victory over unwanted childbearing (United Nations, Population Division 2000). The shift toward more aged populations is not the result of some inevitable evolutionary development in the human organism but rather a product of a process of societal “modernization”. This phenomenon has gone hand in hand with that of urbanization and industrialization. This unprecedented global process has profound consequences and implications for all facets of human life, including the economic, the social, and the political sphere. Furthermore population ageing is enduring, pointing out a process that is unlikely to be reversed in the future. According to Simpson (2015) the sociodemographic transformation has in most recent times been largely interpreted in terms of two forms of crisis. The first is a future crisis of dependency both for economic and health reasons...
eBook - ePubSoziologie - Sociology in the German-Speaking World
Special Issue Soziologische Revue 2020
- Betina Hollstein, Rainer Greshoff, Uwe Schimank, Anja Weiß, Betina Hollstein, Rainer Greshoff, Uwe Schimank, Anja Weiß(Authors)
- 2021(Publication Date)
- De Gruyter Oldenbourg(Publisher)
...In any case, demographic aging along with a declining number of inhabitants has many political and administrative consequences (Bartl, 2011). From a sociological perspective, the main challenge is that a decreasing population has different social, economic, and political impacts than an increasing population. As the sociologist Franz-Xaver Kaufmann (2005) 3 observed, there is a structural lack of solutions for the problems of negative population growth in modern societies, that is, in societies that are bent on solving all problems via growth (115). He postulates that―contrary to population growth, which leads to stimulating diversity―depopulation is associated with consolidating or even intensifying social and regional inequalities. 4.3 Longevity and social structures While the demographic and social effects of low fertility rates on the age distribution of a population have been intensively analyzed, the second dimension of demographic aging―increasing life expectancy―has been less discussed. In the context of increasing life expectancy, one has to mention the internationally widely cited article by Jim Oeppen and James Vaupel (2002), which at least partly originated within Germany (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock). Their research indicates a surprisingly linear increase in life expectancy over the last one hundred and fifty years when we look not at single countries but at those countries that have experienced the highest average life expectancy during a given time period. What is even more interesting from a sociological perspective is the effects of increased life expectancy on life phases and social structures. One of the most elaborate German works on the relationships between increased life expectancy and social structures in modern societies is the analysis by Helga Pelizäus-Hoffmeister (2011)...
eBook - ePub- Danny Dorling, Stuart Gietel-Basten(Authors)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Polity(Publisher)
...The burden of ageing on every aspect of public expenditure is picked over and analysed in academic, popular and policy documents and discussed on a daily basis in some news story somewhere in the world. The capacity of states to provide adequate pension coverage or universal health care, in the context of ever more complex and expensive medical treatments, clearly looks threatening given what appears to be an exponential increase in the number of older people. In many poorer countries, meanwhile, the threat from population ageing is generally related more to the apparent lack of capacity to provide cheap labour to fuel economic growth, rather than to sickness, and often poverty, in old age. To put it simply, the prevailing view of population ageing is based on an outmoded, increasingly inappropriate view of what it means to be ‘old’. In this vein, we discuss some alternative ways of conceptualizing what being ‘old’ might mean in the twenty-first century – taking into account the huge changes in life expectancy that have occurred in recent decades. Apart from in the UK and US, with their current health and political crises (Hiam et al., 2017a), these increases as yet show little sign of abating in the majority of countries worldwide. Building on this, we then explore some other ways of assessing the changes over recent decades, and those projected into the future, which are likely to fundamentally alter how we envisage ‘old age’. We also consider how preventive medicine and preventative social policy can shape an alternative future – developing the notion, presented in Chapter 3, that projections are just one view of the future. But not everything in this chapter is good news, even given our glass-half-full approach...
