Swiss, elderly, single, and childless. Happy?
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
Old age
Gender and socioeconomic inequalities in health after age 50 in Europe
Does the impact of socioeconomic factors on health after midlife vary among women and men depending on the welfare context? Apparently it does: Damiano Uccheddu, Anne H. Gauthier, Nardi Steverink, … Read more
Towards a better identification of older people at risk of depression
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
Growing old in a post-communist society. Who gets lonely in Poland and when?
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
The transition to late adulthood: past adversities increase frailty
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
Grandparents looking after grandchildren in England
Giorgio Di Gessa, Paola Zaninotto and Karen Glaser find that, in England, most grandmothers and grandfathers provide grandchild care throughout the year to allow parents to undertake paid work. However, … Read more
Health at older ages: childless adults not always worse off than parents
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
Does population aging erode democratic support?
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
Socioeconomic differences in life satisfaction and longevity in Spain
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
On the (changing) relationship between life expectancy and lifespan inequality
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
Demographic change and aging without family: a global perspective
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
Mitigating the labour market consequences of population ageing in the EU
Population ageing is inevitable, but its negative consequences on the future labour force of the European Union, up to 2060, could be greatly attenuated if women and immigrants were more … Read more
Work stress among older employees in Germany: effects on health and retirement age
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
Contrasting trends in centenarian lifespans in Denmark and Sweden
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
Increasing (but insufficient?) optimism about future life expectancy
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
Ageing without children in Thailand: bad for mental health?
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
New data on life expectancy and standard of living in France
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
Increasing longevity may counterbalance the negative effects of reproductive aging
Previous research has indicated that being born to older parents is detrimental for offspring longevity. However, the secular trend of increasing longevity may moderate or even reverse any potential negative … Read more
Advanced maternal age and low birth weight
The negative association between advanced maternal age and low birth weight has become progressively weaker over time in the UK (between 1958-2001). This pattern, as Alice Goisis explains, is partly … Read more
Healthy grandparenthood: how long is it, and how has it changed?
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
How long do older Americans work?
Christian Dudel and Mikko Myrskylä study how the length of working life has developed in the U.S. since the early 1990s. While overall life expectancy has increased, there has been … Read more
Summertime, and the livin’ is easy … and longer
“Summertime, and the livin’ is easy” — so begins one of the most famous American songs, Summertime from the Gershwin brothers’ Porgy and Bess. Is the living really easier in … Read more
Retirement timing and grandparenthood in Sweden
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
Dementia risk on the rise as old-age life expectancy increases
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
How comparable are self-reported health data on the older population in Europe?
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
Health effects of working beyond State Pension Age in England
Paid work in adulthood is generally considered beneficial for physical and psychological health and well-being (Woodell and Burton 2006) but its effects at older ages are unclear. Research on work … Read more
International differences in life expectancy gains (and in their cost)
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 21st century – the century of centenarians
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
Did you know?
Two thirds of the world’s older persons live in the developing regions and their numbers are growing faster there than in the developed regions. World Population Ageing Report
Demographic data are inadequate for many older Africans
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
The shrinking population of Europe, ageing and productivity
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 among seniors in Europe. Far higher risk in the East
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
Infectious diseases in ageing populations: a neglected cause of mortality?
In countries with high life expectancies, death is predominantly the consequence of cancers and diseases of the circulatory system. Yet, infectious diseases have not disappeared from public health concerns, and … Read more
An Almost Ideal Pension System for Europe (and other countries)
Pay-as-you-go (PAYG) pension systems are frequent in OECD countries, usually in combination with some form of funding (OECD 2014, 2015), and they have been very extensively studied. But their reputation … Read more
How old do you feel? It depends on whether you have grandchildren
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
Progression de l’espérance de vie: un champ encore grand ouvert mais non sans limite
Si Jeanne Calment a vécu un peu plus de 122 ans et que rien n’indique clairement que ce record mondial soit une limite infranchissable, il est fort probable qu’une telle … Read more
La limite de la vie humaine
La doyenne de l’humanité, la française Jeanne Calment est décédée en 1997 à 122 ans et 5 mois. Bien que dûment vérifié et homologué par le groupe international de recherche … Read more