Measures of the greater or smaller (relative) presence of people of specific age groups (e.g. the young and the old) in a population.
The United States is becoming increasingly heterogeneous, a tendency also reflected in mortality trends. Perhaps unexpectedly, one of the driving forces behind these trends is state political orientation, as Anneliese … Read more
In Italy, as elsewhere, population ageing seems destined to create a series of daunting difficulties. However, as the new e-book edited by Daniele Vignoli and Gustavo De Santis shows, with … Read more
Based on a longitudinal analysis of dried-bloodspot, physical-exam, and performance-test biomarkers in nearly 20,000 participants in the US Health and Retirement Study and English Longitudinal Study of Aging, Arun Balachandran … Read more
This qualitative study explores solitary ageing in Ghana’s Greater Accra Region. Interviews with 52 older adults from six communities revealed situations of emotional isolation, social disconnection, and poverty. Andrew Kweku … Read more
The implications of inaccurate age-reporting among older people are rarely investigated. Alice Reid, Allen Kabagenyi, Stephen Wandera, Joshua Beinomugisha and Sarah Walters suggest that age-heaping may have more to do … Read more
Higher survival, not low fertility, is the main long-term driver of population ageing. Adding some new elements to an old debate among demographers, Gustavo De Santis and Giambattista Salinari illustrate … Read more
The under-investigated issue of co-impairment (cognitive impairment and limitations in basic activities of daily living) is more prevalent than commonly believed. Shubhankar Sharma, Jo Mhairi Hale, Mikko Myrskylä and Hill … Read more
China’s population boom is over: demographic aging and decline will characterize its foreseeable future. However, according to Wang Feng, this will not entail a decrease in the standard of living … Read more
Old age is frequently marred by ill health. Socioeconomic conditions, too, play their part: the poorest also suffer from worse health conditions in Chile, as Pedro Olivares-Tirado and Rosendo Zanga Pizarro show, … Read more
Launched in 2009, the Joint Programming Initiative “More Years Better Lives” (JPI-MYBL) brought together several EU and non-EU countries to create a common research framework aiming to better coordinate, harmonize, … Read more
Longevity Blue Zones are regions of the world where the population has exceptional longevity. Until recently, four of them had been identified: the Nicoya peninsula in Costa Rica, and three … Read more
Population aging is contributing to an increase in loneliness around the world. Lauren Newmyer, Ashton M. Verdery, Haowei Wang, and Rachel Margolis explore loneliness among late-middle-aged and older adults and … Read more
Ageing occupies the forefront of the social and economic policy debate in the European Union (EU). However, ageing patterns differ considerably across EU territories because of distinctive demographic and spatial … Read more
Bruno Arpino edits the first N-IUSSP e-book, reporting the main results of an international research project that has just come to an end: “Care, retirement & wellbeing of older people … Read more
Around the world, more and more people age without close kin. Contrary to expectations, however, according to Małgorzata Mikucka, this does not reduce their life satisfaction, or at least not … Read more
Depression is one of the most common mental disorders in later life. Omar Paccagnella suggests a new approach to classify older individuals into distinct subgroups, based on different combinations of … Read more
Małgorzata Mikucka sheds new light on the loneliness of elderly people in Poland, focusing on the events and transitions that trigger this feeling. Weak social ties and a legacy of … Read more
Health deteriorates with age, and it can be further worsened by adversities experienced during early adulthood and middle age. On SHARE data, Francesca Zanasi, Gustavo De Santis and Elena Pirani measure … Read more
Relying on data from the longitudinal Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (2004-2015), and adopting a propensity score matching approach, Elena Pirani, Gustavo De Santis and Francesca Zanasi … Read more
With U.S. Social Security Trust Funds projected to be insolvent in 2035, America is again facing its retirement riddle. Congress can address the insolvency by making possible adjustments in three … Read more
As children are often the main source of support in later life, childless older adults are presumed to have higher risks of poor health compared to parents. Nekehia T. Quashie, … Read more
The article explores the relationship between becoming a grandmother and retiring in Italy. In contrast to the US and other countries in Europe, the two events do not overlap in … Read more
Individual support for democracy in the population is essential for the stability of democracies. However, not much is known about how demographic change, such as population aging, affects attitudes in … Read more
Aïda Solé-Auró and Mariona Lozano present data on “satisfied life expectancy” by gender and educational level in Spain. One of their somewhat paradoxical findings is that even though Spaniards are … Read more
Life expectancy at birth is widely employed to measure longevity. However, as José Manuel Aburto, Ginevra Floridi and Ella Fegitz argue, another complementary dimension of great relevance in health research … Read more
Some older adults do not have spouses or biological children, i.e. the types of family members who are most likely to provide help in case of need. Rachel Margolis and … Read more
Bruno Arpino and Madelin Gómez-León examine the effect on depression of combining grandchild care with other care roles among individuals aged 50 to 84 in Europe. Their results show that … Read more
One way to tackle population ageing and its negative consequences on pension systems is to increase the official retirement age. However, most employees retire earlier than “expected”. Jana Mäcken tests the … Read more
Rapid economic and demographic changes can pose serious challenges to governments, especially when a modern welfare system must be built, with a radical shift from family-oriented to state-based social protection.The … Read more
A growing body of research has suggested that one way to preserve cognition in later-life is to delay retirement and continue to work into the later years. Irene Mosca and … Read more
While the mean ages at death for Danish and Swedish centenarians were relatively constant at around 102 years for the cohorts born between 1870 and 1904, Anthony Medford shows that … Read more
Disability in old age is known to be greater among Hispanic immigrants than US-born populations. However, little is known about immigrant disability at younger ages. Using ACS data, Mara Getz … Read more
Official demographic forecasts have always been too timid about future increases in life expectancy, and according to Nico Keilman, continue to be so even today. There are reasons for this … Read more
Declining fertility and increasing migration are contributing to growing shares of older Thais who will age with few children, or none at all, or whose children live far away.Quashie and … Read more
Surprising as it may seem, even in developed countries, systematic and large differences in survival exist between rich and poor populations. In France, for instance, Nathalie Blanpain tells us that … Read more
In North America, grandparents live for longer now than in the past, and spend more years in good health, despite being older. However, Rachel Margolis and Laura Wright also find … Read more
In most Western European countries, retiring and entering grandparenthood are relatively parallel events for most individuals, with grandparenthood often occurring a few years before retirement (Leopold and Lechner, 2015).Does being … Read more
As America’s population ages, the number of Americans with dementia is increasing. Because people with dementia often need help with activities of daily living, the cost of caring for a … Read more
The age differentiation of neighbourhoods is often viewed as natural, inevitable or unproblematic, with the view of particular places as appropriate for some age groups while others are not. Increases … Read more
Europe has large projected increases in the proportion of older people in the population (United Nations 2013). Therefore, high quality, representative longitudinal data on the older European population are essential … Read more
Ongoing increases in life expectancies may slow the growth of living standards in developed countries. One reason for this is that reductions in mortality rates, which these days are generally … Read more
The emergence of large numbers of centenarians has accompanied the ageing of our populations. The number of people aged 100 years and over in England and Wales, for example, increased … Read more
Why do we need better data on older people? To accurately understand population change – its scale, speed, determinants and variants – we need accurate data on the age of … Read more
Europe’s population is bound to shrink before 2050: according to the latest revision (2015, medium variant) of the UN (2015) projections, it will decline by 4.5% (31 million) between 2015 … Read more
Loneliness is widely perceived as a problem of old age, as part of “normal” aging. Research shows, however, that only 5 to 15% of adults aged 60–80 report frequent feelings … Read more
The idea of a static measure of age is changing (Christensen et al., 2009; Sanderson & Scherbov, 2013). The concept of ageing is not independent of time and place, and … Read more