Grigorieva I. A. The civilizational diversity of old age

Abstract

For a long time, the aging of the population was not recognized as a global socio-economic problem. Back in the 1980s, it seemed that only the population of the most developed countries was aging. However, at the turn of the millennium , it turned out that the population of both post-socialist and developing countries was aging rapidly. It is estimated that by 2050, 33% of the population of developed and 19% of the population of developing countries will reach the age of 60 years or older. The trend of women's predominance will continue: their share will be 55% among the elderly over 60 years of age and 61% in the 80 age group. and older. Russia is far behind Japan and developed European countries in terms of the proportion of people over 60, according to data from the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Although aging has already become the subject of special sociological and philosophical analysis, there is still no relatively precise definition of the aging process. In its most generalized form, it is the designation of a group of phenomena that lead to a decrease in the expected life expectancy with age at the individual level and an increase in the number of elderly people in the population at the societal level. Still, it's The definition is demographic rather than sociological.