In general, older people today are healthier, more diverse, and better educated than previous generations, and many are pursuing active lives. For example, many older adults, either out of need or by choice, remain employed in a full- or part-time capacity some are even pursuing new careers, and many are engaged in volunteer work. The increase in the number of older workers requires changes in government and organizational policies, work procedures, and educational and training systems. Many older people are also engaging in continuing education, recreational activities (e.g., competitive sports), and travel. Census Bureau, Decennial Census, Population Estimates and projections. population over the last century and projected through 2050. The aging of the population presents vast societal challenges to ensuring that our infrastructures can support the needs of older people enabling them to live healthy, independent, and productive lives. To meet these challenges, we must rethink our conceptualizations of aging and redefine what it means to be “older.” The cohort of older adults today is very different from previous cohorts of older people, and the next cohort of the elderly, who will be mostly “baby boomers,” is also likely to be different from today’s elderly.įIGURE 1 Changes in the age distribution of people 65 and older in the U.S. Human factors engineers can greatly increase the independence and improve the quality of life for older people.ĭramatic changes are taking place in the demographic structure of the United States and other countries (Figure 1). An estimated 22 percent of the population will be over the age of 65 by 2030, and the fastest growing cohort within this subgroup will be people over 75. Currently about 44.5 million people are over the age of 75 by 2050 they will number almost 50 million (Figure 1) (NCHS, 2005). Similar changes are occurring worldwide. By 2030 the percentage of people aged 65+ will be about 24 percent in Europe and about 12 percent in Asia and Latin America.
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