Global ageing in comparative perspective: a critical discussion
International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy
ISSN: 0144-333X
Article publication date: 24 July 2009
Abstract
Purpose
The aims of this paper are to summarise the rapid expansion in the proportion of the elderly across the globe and to highlight the main factors causing this. Specific areas of the globe will be focused on in more detail before the authors discuss some of the key challenges and consequences of global ageing for global society.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is a literature review of major trends and implications of population ageing across the globe.
Findings
As a consequence of the global demographics of ageing, societies are being confronted with profound issues relating to illness and health care, access to housing and economic resources including pension provision. We have witnessed an unprecedented stretching of the human life span. This ageing of the global population is without parallel in human history. If these demographic trends continue to escalate, by 2050 the number of older people globally will exceed the number of young for the first time since formal records began, raising questions of the power of the nation state in the context of global ageing and of the changing nature of the global society that is emerging.
Originality/value
This is an original paper that aims at reviewing the major population trends across the Americas, Asia, Europe and Africa. The implications of demographic change are grounded in context of global changes that highlight social, economic and political implications of global ageing.
Keywords
Citation
Powell, J.L. and Cook, I.G. (2009), "Global ageing in comparative perspective: a critical discussion", International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, Vol. 29 No. 7/8, pp. 388-400. https://doi.org/10.1108/01443330910975696
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2009, Emerald Group Publishing Limited