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Global Aging According to Kinsella and Phillips of Population Bulletin (March 2005), populations are growing older in countries throughout the world. While the populations of more developed countries have been aging for well over a century, this process began recently in most less developed countries, and it is being compressed into a few decades. By 2050, nearly 1.2 billion of the expected 1.5 billion people age 65 or older will reside in today's less developed regions. Just 22 percent of the world's older people will live in what we today call more developed countries. This demographic transformation will profoundly affect the health and socioeconomic development of all nations. The world stands on the threshold of a stunning demographic transformation brought about by declining birthrates and rising life expectancy. The first trend is decreasing the relative number of young, while the second trend is increasing the relative number of old. Together, they are leading to a dramatic and unprecedented aging of populations worldwide. Today, one out of every 9 Americans is "old"another former youth turns 50 every 8 seconds. Those age 65 and older now exceed 35 million, a number poised to explode. January 2011 ushered in the first of approximately 77 million Baby Boomers, born from 1946 through 1964 and are surging toward the gates of retirement.

Statistically speaking, the proportion of Americans 65 years of age and older has tripled in that time (4.1% in 1900 and 12.3% in 2002). By 2030, it is estimated that 20% of Americans will be 65 years of age or older. In 1900, average life expectancy was 47 years, but by 2001 that figure had increased to 77.2 years. According to data from the National Vital Statistics system, in 2001, a Caucasian 65 year old could be expected to live until the age of 83.2 years and an African-American 65 year old could be expected to live until the age of 81.4 years (National Center for Health Statistics, 2004). As the older population increases, the number of people who live to a very old age also increases; in 2002, 50,564 people were 100 years of age or older, an increase

of 35% form 1990 (Administration on Aging). he latest U.S. Census Bureau brief on data from the 2010 Census shows seniors increasing faster than younger populations, raising the nation's median age from 35.3 in 2000 to 37.2 in 2010, with seven states having a median age of 40 or older. Between 2000 and 2010, the 45 to 64 population grew 31.5 percent to 81.5 million, and now makes up 26. 4 percent of the total U.S. population. This rapid growth is due to aging of the Baby Boom generation. Each year more than 3.5 million Boomers turn 55.Their swelling numbers predict that, by 2012, America's 50 and older population will reach 100 million. And according to the UN Population Division, 1 in 5 people are expected to be 65 or older by 2035.

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