ABSTRACT
Arguably the most important population trend in today’s world is demographic ageing. Population ageing is a dynamic bio-social process that fundamentally alters many aspects of society and the economy. Across the Western world in particular, national populations are ageing, primarily as a result of the falling fertility and mortality rates in the final quarter of the nineteenth century and throughout the twentieth century, and also from increasing longevity brought about by medical and other health care advances. At the subnational level, both inflow and outflow migration can also have a notable effect upon the demographic profile especially if the characteristics of in-movers differ from those of out-movers and/or the resident population. Population projections indicate that ageing will continue to be a trend in most national populations for the foreseeable future (UN Population Division 2002).
