06 November 2017

Population aging

The latest Vienna Yearbook of Population Research looks into new measures of aging, building on research by Warren Sanderson and Sergei Scherbov developed at IIASA.

Cover © Wittgenstein Centre (IIASA, VID/ÖAW, WU)

Cover © Wittgenstein Centre (IIASA, VID/ÖAW, WU)

In the last decade or so, new approaches to thinking about and measuring population aging have been developed. These approaches share the view that aging should be defined more by how people are living than by how long they have been alive. At each age, there are many aspects of people’s lives that are relevant to the study of population aging, including how long they  expect to live, how healthy they are, what activity limitations they have, how well they function physically and cognitively, and whether they receive a state-funded pension. These dimensions of people’s lives differ across generations, across countries, and across subgroups of the population. The new 60 is not the old 60 when aging is viewed from a more holistic perspective. In recognition of this insight, the Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital (IIASA, VID, and WU) brought experts on aging together in November 2014 to discuss new ways of thinking about and measuring population aging. This volume is the result of that conference.

Guest editors of this special issue were POP scientists Warren Sadnerson and Sergei Scherbov. Together have developed new methods of the analysis of aging that take characteristic of people into account. Their research has been published in major scientific journals, including Nature and Science. Scherbov is also a winner of a prestigious Advanced Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) to study, among other things, the extent to which advanced societies are actually aging in multiple dimensions, including health, cognitive abilities, and longevity. 

Publication details

Sanderson, W.C. and Scherbov, S. eds. (2016) Vienna Yearbook of Population Research 2016. Verlag der Oesterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna, Austria.

Content

Warren Sanderson and Sergei Scherbov

Introduction


Warren Sanderson and Sergei Scherbov

A unifying framework for the study of population aging
   
Stuart Gietel-Basten, Sergei Scherbov and Warren Sanderson
Towards a reconceptualising of population ageing in emerging markets
   
Anastasia Emelyanova and Arja Rautio
Population ageing dynamics in the North Atlantic region of the Arctic
    

Jelena Stojilkovic Gnjatovic and Mirjana Devedzic
Certain characteristics of population ageing using a prospective approach: Serbia as a case study   
    
Michael Boissonneault and Joop de Beer
The impact of physical health on the postponement of retirement    
    
Elena Demuru and Viviana Egidi
Adjusting prospective old-age thresholds by health status: empirical findings and implications. A case study of Italy
     

Mikkel Christoffer Barslund and Marten von Werder
Measuring dependency ratios using National Transfer Accounts    
    
Alberto Palloni and Beatriz Novak
Subjective survival expectations and observed survival: How consistent are they?    
    
Tim Riffe, Pil H. Chung, Jeroen Spijker and John MacInnes
Time-to-death patterns in markers of age and dependency      


David H. Rehkopf, Luis Rosero-Bixby and William H. Dow

A cross-national comparison of 12 biomarkers finds no universal biomarkers of aging among individuals aged 60 and older     



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Last edited: 10 April 2018

CONTACT DETAILS

Sergei Scherbov

Distinguished Emeritus Research Scholar Social Cohesion, Health, and Wellbeing Research Group - Population and Just Societies Program

IIASA Project

Reassessing Aging from a Population Perspective (Re-Aging)

PUBLICATIONS

International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)
Schlossplatz 1, A-2361 Laxenburg, Austria
Phone: (+43 2236) 807 0 Fax:(+43 2236) 71 313