wfn.org | Facts on Aging

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Aug. 9, 1999 News media contact: Linda Bloom**(212) 870-3803**New York
10-21-71B{414}

NOTE:  This can be used as a box with the older adults series

By United Methodist News Service

Some facts on aging:

In the past 100 years, life expectancy in the United States has increased by
about 30 years. Life spans have increased even more in other countries,
doubling in China, Malaysia, Morocco and Venezuela.

The "oldest old" (those 75 years of age and older) are the fastest-growing
part of the older adult population. In 1996, more than 43 percent of that
group lived in just four countries: the United States, the People's Republic
of China, India and Japan.

In some African and Asian nations, people 75 or over account for less than 1
percent of the total population.

By 2030, the proportion of older adults to young people in the United States
will tilt: between 20 and 22 percent of the population will be 65 and older,
compared to 19 percent of children and teen-agers.

West Virginia has the oldest per-capita population in the United States, and
Utah has the youngest.

About a third of those over 65 in the United States live alone.

Women make up 67 percent of people in the United States who are 80 or older.

Roughly one in eight older adults lives in poverty.

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