In the present days, the world is experiencing the transition in its population, the total number of people aged 65 and more has gradually become larger. This transition is called population aging. Population aging refers to a trend that the proportion of people aged 65 and more is expanding in an area. Population aging can be measured by the ratio between the total number of people who are 65 years old and older than 65-year-old and the total population in a certain district. In the United States, the situation of population aging is more severe than that in the past. The decrease in both mortality and fertility and the advanced medical technology that helps in expanding human’s life expectancy can be main reasons for this …show more content…
According to Siegel’s article based on the discussion of the social security system and the age distribution of the population, Siegel thinks that there is a strong relationship between the social security system and the age distribution of the population and the elderly aged dependency ratio can be the proper measure to reflect the link between elderly people and working age population. The elderly dependency ratio is based on past trends of mortality, fertility and net migration to project population in the future. This measure presents constant growing in the population; especially, it gives relatively possible population number for the next two decades. However, elderly aged dependency ratio is not a reliable measure when it is used to project the future population more than two decades. For example, individuals in the U.S. have become reluctant to have kids, as the opportunity cost of having a child is considerably high while a person’s income after tax and other fees is comparatively low. On the other side, with the improvement in medical technology and health care system, the mortality rate has decreased. Human’s life expectancy has changed over past several decades. It is stated in Siegel’s article “Between 1935, … …, and 1997, life expectancy at birth rose from 59.9 years to 73.6 years for men and from 63.9 years to 79.4 years for women.” This demonstrates a dramatic change in human’s life
Ageing population is a worldwide pattern; it has major implications for the way in which programs designed to support older people are funded. While social security and means-tested social assistance programs for long-term care protect the living standards of the poor, middle income groups face under-appreciated risks, such as outliving their capital or needing expensive long-term care. This will cause economic, social, and political implications of a rapidly ageing population, which will affect society and businesses.
It is widely believed that the aging of the U.S. population is a major driver of the annual growth in the demand for health care and in national health spending
The rapid growth in the number of seniors in America and around the world is creating a global demographic revolution without precedent. During this century, advances in hygiene and water supply and control of infectious diseases have reduced the risk of premature death much. As a result, the proportion of population over 60 years in the world is growing faster than in any previous era. In 1950 there were approximately 200 million people aged over 60 worldwide. By 2000 there will be over 550 million, and by 2025, the number of people over 60 is expected to reach 1,200 million.
Just like other parts of the world, the United States is no exceptional, it is an aging society. Between the year 2000 and the year 2050, the number of the elderly is predicted to increase by 135%. Again, the population of the persons aged 85 years and above, which is the group that will mostly require health and long-term services, is predicted to
Back in twentieth century, a tiny fragment of mere 5% population was comprised of people aged 65 and above. A little spike in this segment was observed during the period of 1950s-1960s; however, that spike was not significant and restricted to 8% of entire population (Chart 1.1). Many factors were responsible for the small proportion of senior population, the most prominent one though, low life expectancy, high fertility/birth rates and limitation of health services.
The aging of the population will have wide-ranging implications for the country (Ortman, Velkoff, & Hogan, 2014). By “aging,” demographers often mean that the proportion of the population in the older ages increases. As the United States ages over the next several decades, its older population will become more racially and ethnically diverse. The projected growth of the older population in the United States will present challenges to policy makers and programs, such as Social Security and Medicare. It will also affect families, businesses, and health care providers.
The US Census Bureau projects that by the year 2030 more than 20 percent of the total US population will be of age 65 and over, compared to only 13 percent in 2010 and 9.8 percent in 1970 (Outreville, 2013). This population trend is believed to grow even more by the year 2060. Although the aging population is an important population trend to consider with healthcare as a whole, that is not the only one. The US is also projected to become a majority-minority nation for the first time by the year 2043 (Outreville, 2013). This diversity is happening more in certain parts of the US than the entire US as a whole. The ageing population and the increasing racial diversity of the population are the most important trends to the planning,
Figure 1, taken from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2015), shows Australia’s demographic trend of an ageing population between 1995 and 2015. It can be noted that the proportion of Australia 's population aged 15-49 years remained fairly stable, however during the same period, the proportion of people aged 55 years and over increased from 11.9% to 15.0% and the proportion of people aged 85 years and over almost doubled from 1.1% of the total population in 1995 to 2% in 2015.
Over the years, there have been major shifts within the United States in regards to its population. Statisticians have estimated that 20% of the population will be 65 years of age and older. There is an even
Manuscript received March 7, 2013; revised August 28, 2013. NICTA is funded by the Australian Government as represented by the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy and the Australian Research Council through the ICT Centre of Excellence program.
From 1970 to the year 2000, the world's over-60 population is projected to increase by more than 90 percent" . This is an astonishing number, seeming how the total population was predicted to grow by less than 75 percent . "The most prominent feature of the looming shift in the composition of the working-age population is, of course, its increasing age" . It is hard to say what will happen when suddenly there will be an abundance of older people who are preparing to retire.
One of the major medical achievements of the twentieth century was the dramatic increase in the average global life expectancy. In 1950, the global median age was 23.6 years; by the year 2000, it rose to 26.4 – a gain of three years. The United Nations has projected that by the year 2050, the median age will jump to 37 years – a ten-year gain (Kochhar, 2014). People are living longer. At the same time, people are having fewer children. The consequence will be a situation without precedent: by the year 2020, there will be more of people over 65 years of age than children. World Health Organization (WHO) and many of the developed as well as developing nations are raising questions such as ¬ Will longer lives result in longer periods of good health, longer periods of productive careers and social engagements, or will old age mean prolonged illness, disability, and dependency on family and the State. How will the healthcare and social costs be borne by high-income and low-income nations? Managing the demographic forces will require creation of institutions and infrastructures that may seem costly; waiting could be costlier (Dobrianskt, Suzman and Beard 2011). The first part of the paper describes the projected changes in the population and the attitudes towards aging and coping with aging-related issues. An aging population, without appropriate policies, can become an economic and social burden in many of the European countries. The second section describes some
The world’s population is ageing rapidly. Between 2000 and 2050, the proportion of the world's older adults is estimated to double from about 11% to 22%. In absolute terms, this is an expected increase from 605 million to 2 billion people over the age of 60.
A drop in net immigration to the United States is a key factor that has contributed to the aging of the US population. According to the U.S. census Bureau, “there have been a drop in immigration levels in the United States”, which, mean that a smaller share of U.S. population growth can directly attribute to immigration similar to natural increase these can also be related to jobs losses that are normally filled by immigrants such as construction jobs, and manufacturing jobs. Declining fertility rates are also a key factor in the United States. “In the past the 18 and under have exceeded the 65 and older, but now have declined by 190,000 per the Census Bureau in 2010 and 2011 while the elderly have increased by 917,000. Working-age adults, and those in childbearing ages, is also down”. There is also a decline in fertility rates as well, they estimated 4 billion birth between 2010 and 2011 which is down from the 4.2 that was between 2005 and 2006.
*Basic Principle of Population Evaluation System: According to Cowgill and Holmes (1970) [as quoted in Andrews and Philips 2006] a population is classified as “aging” when the elderly (65 and over) account for 7 to 9.9% of the total population. Similarly 10-19.9% of the