Number of elderly poses problems

Press, 20 July 1987, Page 5

Number of elderly poses problems

Washington NZPA-AP The number of elderly people in the world is growing at an unprecedented rate, posing serious questions for society in the future, the United States Census Bureau reports. At present, 23 nations have more than two million residents aged 65 and over, and by the year 2025 that number was expected to grow to 50 nations, according to a census study, “An Ageing World.” “Rapidly expanding numbers of older people represent a social phenomenon without historical precedent, and one that is bound to alter previously held stereotypes of older people,” said the study. The number of people world-wide aged 65 and over was growing at 2.4 per cent annually, much faster than the global population as a whole. This group was expected to grow from 290 million people now to 410 million by the year 2000, the study said. The world’s population, which demographers say has just topped the five billion mark, is growing

an estimated 1.7 per cent annually. In many nations, the elderly population was itself growing older, because of higher rates of increase of people aged 75 and over, the study said. While the study did not detail the elderly populations of every nation, it singled out several for mention, including: • Sweden, with 17 per cent of its population 65 and over in 1985, had the largest share of elderly of any big country. That is about the same proportion of elderly as in the population of Florida, a favorite retirement place. • “The speed of Japan’s ageing is almost breathtaking.” It will take only 26 years for. Japan to double its proportion of elderly from 7 per cent to 14 per cent, compared with 66 years for the United States. • Efforts to lower the birth rate in China, if successful, could result in 40 per cent of the Chinese population being 65 and older by the middle of the next century. The 23 nations with

more than two million people aged 65 and over, according to the study: China, 52.9 million; India, 32.7 million: United States, 28.6 million; Soviet Union, 25.9 million; Japan, 12.1 million; West Germany, 8.8 million; United Kingdom, 8.5 million; Italy, 7.4 million; France, 6.7 million; Indonesia, 5.9 million; Brazil, 5.8 million; Spain, 4.3 million; Poland, 3.5 million; Bangladesh, 3.1 million; Pakistan, 2.8 million; Mexico, 2.8 million; Canada, 2.6 million; Argentina, 2.6 million; Vietnam, 2.4 million; Nigeria, 2.3 million; East Germany, 2.2 million; Romania, 2.2 million and Turkey, 2.1 million. Expected to join this group by the year 2025 are Thailand, Philippines, South Korea, Egypt, Iran, Burma, Yugoslavia, Colombia, South Africa, Ethiopia, Australia, Zaire, North Korea, Netherlands, Morocco, Peru, Czechoslovakia, Venezuela, Algeria, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Sudan, Tanzania, Chile, Kenya, Iraq and Hungary.