The elderly will outnumber children for the first time in 2045, ratcheting demand on nursing homes and increasing the burden on working-age people to support retirees, a United Nations report found.

The proportion of the world’s population older than 60 years will reach 22 percent over the next four decades from 11 percent in 2009 and 8 percent in 1950, the UN’s Department of Economic and Social Affairs said in the report, titled World Population Ageing 2009.

The ranks of the elderly are expanding 2.6 percent a year, three times faster than humanity as a whole, mostly because people are living longer and having fewer children. The trend will affect economic growth, savings, investment, consumption, labor markets, pensions and taxation, the UN found. It will also influence living arrangements, housing demand, migration trends and the need for health-care services.

“As children account for a declining proportion of the population, there may be a reduction in the number of schools just as the increasing share of the older population begins to require more long-term care facilities, says California Elder Law Attorney Steven C. Peck.

The number of people older than 60 surpassed 700 million worldwide last year and is projected to swell to 2 billion by 2050, or triple the level in 2000. In most countries, the population over 80 is growing faster than any other age group and will continue growing rapidly until at least 2050, indicating “a growing demand for long-term care,” indicates California Financial Abuse attorney Steven C. Peck.

Today, the median age for the world is 28 years. The north central African nation of Niger has the youngest population with a median age of 15; Japan has the oldest, with a median age of 44, according to the report. Worldwide, the median age will likely increase by 10 years over the next four decades.

Contact Steven Peck’s Premier Legal toll free to talk to an experienced California Elder Law and Neglect Layer toll free at 1.866.999.9085 and visit us on-line at www.premierlegal.org.

About the Author

Attorney Steven Peck has been practicing law since 1981. A former successful business owner, Mr. Peck initially focused his legal career on business law. Within the first three years, after some colleagues and friend’s parents endured nursing home neglect and elder abuse, he continued his education to begin practicing elder law and nursing home abuse law.