International Perspectives on Ageing: Population and Policy Challenges.

Abstract

Focus in this volume an outgrowth of a collaborative effort undertaken by the UN Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) and the Policy Center on Aging at Brandeis University is on the following: the aging of populations; family and social networks; income employment and retirement policies; challenges for health policy and planning; environments and living arrangements; and issues of social service policy. Unique challenges are created by the aging of populations. The basic process of population aging unlike the other critical dimensions of world population growth such as fertility and mortality is neither directly amenable to change nor easily modified. Moreover population aging is the product of desirable changes that accompany the demographic transition i.e. the reduction of fertility and the prolongation of life expectancy. Consequently a relationship exists between the components of growth i.e. fertility mortality and migration and the structure of population. Of the almost 258 million old persons estimated in 1980 about equal numbers live in developed and developing countries. Projections to the year 2000 indicate that older persons in developed countries will increase by 30% but the increase in developing countries will be about 77.4%. The growing phenomenon of aging requires the provision of economic and social support for the older population and a reexamination of the essential aspects of family structure employment income social security and other services. It is also necessary to recognize that the social and economic implications of the aging process in developing countries may be different from those experienced in developed countries. The contributions in this volume make use of a worldwide perspective to consdier the implications of population aging for developing countries. Taken together the 6 chapters present an up-to-date analysis of demographic transitions in the age structure of national populations throughout the world review the challenges and issues generated by the aging of populations offer an overview of the various patterns through which the developed countries have responded to population aging consider the different ways in which the responses of developed countries may be inappropriate and appropriate for developing countries to emulate and pose critical policy choices that will challenge developing countries as their populations age rapidly in the immediate future.