The World Today

April & May 2013: Coping with an ageing population

Lead article

Advances in medicine and health care mean that people all over the globe are living longer, much longer. At the same time mothers in most countries are having fewer babies. The combination is a demographic timebomb. Sarah Harper looks at the challenges that lie ahead and the changes needed to cope with a grey new world

Articles

JAPANPopulation: 127.4m65 years and over: 23.9%Life expectancy at birth: 83.9 yearsPopulation in 2050: 99.7m

AFRICA:Population: 874.8m65 years and over: 3.2%Life expectancy at birth: 54.2 yearsPopulation in 2050: 2bn

SAUDI ARABIAPopulation: 26.5m65 years and over: 3%Life expectancy at birth: 74.3 yearsPopulation in 2050: 58.24m

CHINAPopulation: 1.34bn65 years and over: 9.1%Life expectancy at birth: 74.8 yearsPopulation in 2050: 1.30bn

INDIA:Population: 1.22bn65 years and over: 5.6%Life expectancy at birth: 67.1 yearsPopulation in 2050: 1.69bn

IRAN:Population: 78.8m65 years and over: 5.1%Life expectancy at birth: 70.3 yearsPopulation in 2050: 94.41m

From the editor

A generation ago, it was predicted that the world’s population would rise to 24 billion. Since then demographers have been rowing back, and now the best estimate is that the global population will stabilize at 10 billion – still a huge number but less daunting.

Also in this issue

The ravages of dementia will continue to haunt mankind for years to come

'After 45, all I seemed to play was a wife carrying a lamb chop'. Photo:Eamonn McCabe/Getty Images

The actress on the challenge of working into her 60s, the ‘religion’ of children and the fight for gender equality

Unemployed Millenials protest in bowler hats outside a London job centre. Photo: Leon Neal/Getty Images

How the Baby Boomers have betrayed their children

The coronation of mad Charles VI of France who went on to rule for 42 years. Photo: Redux/Eyevine

The implications of greater longevity

Choice with safeguards: the way ahead? Photo: Getty Images/Jonathan Kirn

A case for assisted dying and suggested safeguards

EUROPEPopulation: 503.8m65 years and over: 17.9%Life expectancy at birth: 79.7Population in 2060: 516.9m

The TV historian and chief curator at Historic Royal Palaces talks about ageing monarchs, large families and having it all

SINGAPORE:Population: 5.3m65 years and over: 7.8%Life expectancy at birth: 84 yearsPopulation in 2050: 5.56m

Emanuelle Riva in 'Amour'. Photo: Artificial Eye

Our author despairs at grey-pound films with one fine exception

The Astana skyline: a mix of Las Vegas and Washington with a touch of Narnia. Photo: Getty Images/AWL Images RM

Steppe towards the future: Kazakhstan’s shiny new capital

Sheila Heti: quest for selfhood. Photo: Ulf Andersen/Getty Images

A man prepares to dive into the Men's Bathing Pond on Hampstead Heath. Photo: Jim Watson/AFP/GEtty Images

Governments greet longer life as a success, but families often react with private dread. Photo: Getty Images

Fertility rates in the US are falling as people go off the idea of big families. Alan Philps looks at two books on this demographic changeJonathan V. Last What to Expect When No One’s Expecting: America’s Coming Demographic Disaster (Encounter Books £15.99)Laura L. Carstensen A Long Bright Future: Happiness, Health and Financial Security in an Age of Increased Longevity (Public Affairs £10.99)