China's Concern Over Population Aging and Health
China is not prepared to meet the health needs of its growing elderly population, but its government has recognized these challenges and is starting to develop a comprehensive response. However, while China's economy continues to grow rapidly, whether it will be able to allocate enough income to meet these rising health care costs remains as a major concern. (June 2006)

Europe's Population Aging Will Accelerate

 This data sheet provides 26 indicators—ranging from life expectancy at birth to average retirement ages to net migration totals—for each of the 25 countries of the European Union and 46 European countries in all. Europe will see its populations continue to age to unprecedented levels over the next 25 years, causing strains in health care, employment, and retirement. (June 2006)

What Japan Can Do To Push Its Longevity Envelope
A 1995 study showed that Japan had slipped to sixth place in the world regarding life expectancy for people who had reached age 80. Yet Japan has been slow to respond to upswings in the death rates from chronic diseases with appropriate public health measures. (May 2006)

The Future of Human Life Expectancy: Have We Reached the Ceiling or Is the Sky the Limit?
This new policy brief by the Population Reference Bureau and the Behavioral and Social Research (BSR) Program of the National Institute on Aging (NIA) discusses the latest scholarly thinking on how best to project life expectancy, given trends such as the recent decline in disability rates and rise in childhood obesity. (May 2006)

Health Care Challenges for Developing Countries with Aging Populations
Because the elderly are at high risk for chronic disease and disability, population aging will place urgent demands on developing-country health care systems, most of which are oriented toward infectious disease and ill-prepared for such demands. (April 2006)

Full-Time Work Among Elderly Increases
Increasing numbers of older workers in the United States are now employed full-time—which could improve the ability of American workers to save enough for retirement and moderate the labor shortage analysts now anticipate in the wake of the retirement of baby boomers. (April 2006)

The Future of Human Life Expectancy: Have We Reached the Ceiling or Is the Sky the Limit? (PDF: 99KB)
After remaining fairly constant for most of human history, life expectancy has nearly doubled in the past century. The maximum life span has increased spectacularly as well. There is little disagreement over these facts. Scholary opinion diverges, however, as to whether these increases will continue or whether human longevity is approaching its limit. (March 2006)

A Critical Window for Policymaking on Population Aging in Developing Countries
The world's elderly population is quickly growing, and developing countries need to invest soon in formal systems of old-age support. (January 2006)

The Demographic Divide: What It Is and Why It Matters
The vast gulf in birth and death rates among the world’s countries reflects a global division between mostly poor nations with relatively high birth rates and low life expectancies and mostly wealthy nations with low birth rates and life expectancies past age 75. (December 2005)

The Future of Social Security
Syracuse University sociologist Christine Himes outlines the U.S. demographic trends fueling debates on reforming the Social Security system as well as the major reform proposals. (June 2005)