Old age
Old age is the appearance of a population that includes a large number of the elderly. As hochaltrig people are doing pragmatically viewed, are older than 80 years. In demographics , more precisely, one sees that part of the population, half of whose peers have already died, as very old . One also speaks of the fourth age.
In the western industrialized nations, the proportion of old and very old people has been increasing since the 19th century as a result of higher life expectancy and lower birth rates . The proportion of the population aged over 60 in Germany was 14.6% in 1950, 23.6% in 2000, the forecast for 2020 is 29.2%, and 36.7% is expected for 2050. The very old age of society is increasingly seen as a challenge to social and health systems. Occasionally, this development is assessed using the terms aging or youthfulness in order to emphasize that the current generation contract cannot cope with these changes without adjustments.
The phase of life in which old people are increasingly dependent on help, suffer from severe ailments or dementia occurs at a greater distance from the beginning of retirement . Many of the very old people are still able to lead an independent life. In Germany in 2002 the proportion of people over 90 who lived in private households was 57%. Nevertheless, people of this age have specific demands on their living environment, on social participation and, finally, in the case of dementia and need for care, on protection and protection of their interests.
See also
- Gerontology , age picture , report of the elderly by the German Federal Government
- Demographic change in Germany
- Fit for 100
Web links
- Summary of the results of the 4th report on the elderly to the German Federal Government , accessed July 5, 2009
- Very old age in Austria. An inventory. , of the Austrian Federal Ministry for Social Affairs and Consumer Protection (PDF, 5161 kB), accessed April 30, 2012
- François Höpflinger, old age - demographic, health and social developments. , accessed July 7, 2009
Individual evidence
- ^ Franz-Xaver Kaufmann , Shrinking Society. The population decline and its consequences. in: Series of publications by the Federal Agency for Political Education, Volume 508, Bonn 2005, p. 41.
- ↑ Statement of the German Federal Government on the report of the Expert Commission for the 4th report on the elderly ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Page 8, Word document, 184 kB, accessed July 6, 2009
