The Nature of the Problem

Abstract

The elderly make up about 14% of the population in Great Britain and number over eight million, of whom about 3.5 million are over 75. These numbers are expected to rise in the next decade and perhaps more significantly the proportion of the elderly population will rise to about 20% of the total (Table 1.1). These trends are mirrored in other Western countries, such as the USA (Table 1.2) and are likely to be even more marked in Oriental countries such as Japan. In Japan there has been a precipitous fall in the birth rate since 1950, which is now the lowest in the world.