ABSTRACT
Societies across the globe are experiencing rapid population ageing. Life expectancy in Great Britain is increasing at more than five hours a day and will continue to do so, at least into the medium-term future (Academy of Medical Sciences 2009). By the middle of the twenty-first century society will have an age composition never seen before in human history. In the 1880s just over 7 per cent of the population was aged over 60, similar to estimates of the sixteenth century but, lower than estimates of the proportion of older people in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. By the 1980s this proportion had incrementally crept up to 17 per cent, and over the past 50 years the population of the UK has aged considerably. While the proportion aged under 16 has decreased from 24 per cent to 20 per cent, the population aged over 60 has increased from 16 per cent to 21 per cent (Thane 2000). The ageing process will accelerate over the coming decades. Ageing will also apply to the working age population which will become much older as the baby boom generations of the mid 1960s age. According to the Government Actuary’s Department (GAD) there were 1.7 million (10 per cent) more working age adults aged below 40 than were aged 40 and above in 2006. By 2020, as a result of the equalisation and increase in women’s state pension age, there will be more working adults aged 40 and above than below 40. With further increases to the state pension age for both men and women there are projected to be 1.4 million (7 per cent) more working age people above 40 than below 40 (GAD 2008).
