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Encyclopedia of Gerontology and Population Aging pp 1–6Cite as

Aging Households

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Definition

The term “aging households” typically refers to non-institutionalized households headed by someone aged 65 and older. Research on aging households draws from both demography and environmental gerontology. Previously, aging households may have been referred to as elderly households.

Overview

The world population is aging and the proportion of the population ages 65 and older is projected to increase from 15% to 22% by 2050 (Kaneda et al. 2018). As the number of aging households increases globally, this will contribute to changing family structure norms, financial security and pension policy, and health care needs across the globe. Europe has the largest aging population, with 17% of their population 65 and older in 2015 compared to only 15% in North America, 8% in Asia, and 3.5% in Africa (He et al. 2016). The oldest country in the world is Japan with 27% of their population over the age of 65. By 2050, Japan is projected to have 72 elderly for every 100 working age Japanese...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Policy Analysis and Management, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

    Adriana M. Reyes

Authors
  1. Adriana M. Reyes
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Adriana M. Reyes .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Population Division, UN Dept of Economic Social Affairs Population Division, New York, NY, USA

    Danan Gu

  2. Department of Population Health Sciences, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA

    Matthew E. Dupre

Section Editor information

  1. Department of Sociology, Lehman College, City University of New York, New York, NY, USA

    Naomi J. Spence

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Reyes, A.M. (2019). Aging Households. In: Gu, D., Dupre, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Gerontology and Population Aging. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69892-2_316-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69892-2_316-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-69892-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-69892-2

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Biomedicine and Life SciencesReference Module Biomedical and Life Sciences

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