Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-jbqgn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-15T18:53:16.122Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

2 - Population aging: sources

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 October 2009

Get access

Summary

Population aging is represented by an increase in the relative number of older persons (e.g., those over 60 or 65 years of age) in a population; it is reflected also in the associated increase in the median age of the population. Population aging thus is a counterpart to population “youthening” and the associated decline in the median age of the population (United Nations, 1951, 1956, 1973; U.S. Bureau of the Census, May 1975). Population aging tends to emerge in a mature low fertility population, whereas “youthening” may characterize a high-fertility population experiencing declining mortality among the young (Spengler, 1968).

In as much as awareness of the demographic sources of population aging is conditioned by the sensitivity of available demographic measures, we shall point first to the development of these measures. Later we shall review population changes that led to the emergence of population aging and conditions associated with it. Socioeconomic characteristics of older populations (U.S. Bureau of the Census, Nov. 1975), and implications of population aging are examined in later chapters.

Indicators of population aging

Although the age composition of a population may be affected by changes in mortality, fertility, and net external migration, careful measures of the extent of these effects were slow to be developed. Indeed, their perfection awaited the development of the concept of a stable population, a concept suggested by Leonard Euler in 1760 and later anticipated by Laplace and Quetelet (Coale and Demeny, Chapter 1; Keyfitz, 1976; Lotka, 1907, 1925; also, Unsigned, 1976). However, it was not fully articulated until 1907 by A. J. Lotka, who along with F. R. Sharpe demonstrated it in 1911 (Dublin et al., pp. 241–56; Lotka, 1925, pp. 109–20).

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1980

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×