ABSTRACT
In this chapter we show first how the age structure of Britain’s population has changed during the twentieth century, and how it is likely to change in the century’s final years and beyond. We then consider some of the current and future implications of past changes and of those still to come, both for individuals who survive into what is commonly called old age and for the wider society of which they are a part. We challenge the need for the alarm—almost panic—which the increased rate of survival of so many more people into their ninth and tenth decades appears to have evoked in some quarters. We consider the real challenges to society of having more octogenarians, nonagenerians, and centenarians in its ranks, and ask what is likely to be involved in meeting them.
