Conclusion

This book has examined healthy aging in the context of significant demographic and social trends, including growing aging populations, declining labor forces, and increasing immigration. Although population aging is affecting all of the world’s countries, it is clear from the evidence presented in these chapters that Japan, Sweden, and the U.S. are among the countries at the forefront of this unprecedented social and demographic transformation. Japan, in particular, has been aging at a rapid pace, due in part to a unique combination of low birthrates, low infant mortality, and low mortality rates in the later years. As a result, the proportion of the Japanese population age 65 or older essentially doubled from 1950 to 1985, and again from 1985 to 2010, and is expected to do so again by 2050—increasing from 5% to approximately 40% of the population within the lifetimes of the growing number of Japanese centenarians.