Elderly in Communities

The elderly are those in the stage of the life course known as late life, although there is considerable ambiguity about the term. It is traditionally associated with the chronological age of sixty-five or older in the United States, partially because of public policies and census delineations. It is often the age at which people retire from active or full-time employment.

Depending on the country and the culture, people who are fifty, fifty-five, sixty, sixty-two, sixty-five, or older, may be considered elderly. In most communities within the United States, the term elderly is used less frequently than such terms as senior, senior citizen, older adult, elder, or aged.

Within many communities, the term elderly refers to the “oldest-old,” someone who is older than eighty-five years. Psychologist Bernice Neugarten distinguished between the stages of old. Using her approach, sixty-five to seventy-five years could be considered “young-old,” seventy-five to eighty-five as “old,” and eighty-five to ninety-five as “old-old.”

Aging populations, particularly old-old populations, are increasing dramatically. The 2002 United Nations Conference on Aging recognized an unprecedented demographic transformation in the world and estimated that by 2050, the number of persons aged sixty and over would increase from 600 million to 2 billion. In the next half-century, the proportion of persons sixty-five and older could exceed 25 percent of the population of many communities.

Western industrialized countries are characterized by relatively high percentages of older populations. In 2000, 40 percent of people over 65 lived in the United States and other more developed countries (MDCs), including Canada, the European countries, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. The number of older adults in the populations of developed countries has steadily increased over the last 130 years as result of declining birth and mortality rates and the aging of the post–World War II baby boomers.

Attitudes toward the elderly are connected to the organization of social and economic life and population shifts. The increase in retirees relative to working-age populations in Western societies over the next fifty years may strain health and social security systems. These changes, in turn, may negatively affect attitudes toward the elderly, although the status of the elderly varies by culture and subgroup.

Older adults tend to maintain the same activity patterns as when they were younger members of their communities. Participation in community activities is likely to be maintained throughout later life unless access problems or physical challenges intervene. Dependency and disability can limit an elderly person's productive involvement in their communities, but older adults may adjust by focusing on particular aspects of their life in which success is possible.

Elderly men in Manarola, Cinque Terre, Italy, playing bocce in March 1996.

Stephen G. Donaldson Photography; used with permission.

A greater percentage of elderly adults in a population can result in challenges for families and communities. Income security, medical care, and transportation issues may stretch a community's planning capacities and resources. As the healthier and wealthier baby boomer cohort grows old, however, it will represent an important community resource.