Impact of demographic changes on society and economy

Demographic Changes

Demography is the study of the characteristics of human populations, such as size, growth density, distribution or vital statistics (Lexico Publishing Group, LLC 2006). Statistics show that the population of persons aged 65 years and older grew from 4% in 1900 to 12.7% in 1990 and is predicted to reach 21% in the year 2030. It has been observed that the older population is growing older and that the oldest old is the fastest growing group. There are now 3 million elderly people aged 85 years old and over in the U.S. today. Other industrialized countries exhibit the same pattern among their elderly populations so that they are predicted to comprise 1.5 of the world population in the year 2050 (American Association of Retired Persons 1998, Stastny 2006).

Most age distributions are based on chronological age and scientists create groups on this basis in order to analyze the consequences of age distribution (American Association of Retired Persons 1998). Age 65 has been most often used as the start of old age arbitrarily since the 1935 enactment of the Social Security Act, which fixed the age of retirement and benefits could be received. Ageism has since been resorted to as a biased norm in acquiring social resources on account of declining functional ability, in turn due to chronological aging. The role theory basically assumes on the roles set for persons according to their age. Gerontologists who support this theory are unduly fixated with the problems of adjustment that aging persons undergo because of changes that occur later in their lives. In the process, these persons lose their identity, their children become adults themselves and these retirees lose the activities, which used to occupy their time. They, thus, relinquish their social relationships and roles as adults. This theory presents problems because not all replacement roles are ineffective or useless. Another is the age stratification theory, which categorizes society according to age, gender, and social class. People are classified or grouped as young, middle-aged and old. They are expected to play certain roles and enjoy certain rights in each classification or group as well as lose privileges accorded each group or classification (American Association of Retired Persons).