EMBARGOED UNTIL: 12:01 A.M. EST, NOVEMBER 25, 1998 (WEDNESDAY) Public Information Office CB98-218 301-457-3030/301-457-3670 (fax) 301-457-4067 (TDD) e-mail: pio@census.gov Kevin Kinsella 301-457-1371 Most Latin American Countries Aging Faster Than the United States, Census Bureau Reports In three-quarters of the Western Hemisphere's countries, the number of people who are age 60 or over will more than double by 2025. However, the United States, with an expected 87-percent population increase in this age group, is not one of them, according to a wall chart released by the Commerce Department's Census Bureau. Other highlights in the Census Bureau wall chart: - The country in the Western Hemisphere with the oldest population is Uruguay, where 17 percent of the population is 60 or older. - By 2025, at least one-fifth of the population in 15 countries in the Americas is likely to be age 60 and over. - Projections to the year 2025 suggest that in several countries of the Western Hemisphere, including the United States, Cuba and Chile, there will be more people age 60 and over than people under age 15. There are no such countries today. - Ten countries in the Western Hemisphere now have female life expectancies at birth equal to or higher than the United States (79 years). - In the United States, 26 percent of men and 15 percent of women ages 60 and over are in the labor force, lower than the corresponding rates in many other countries in the Americas. The Dominican Republic leads the Western Hemisphere in this category for men at 79 percent, while Haiti, with 35 percent, leads for women. The wall chart, titled "Aging in the Americas into the XXI Century," shows measures of the present and future prevalence of older people in the Western Hemisphere. The chart shows estimates and projections of the percentage of the population 60 and over and ages 75 and over, life expectancy, the percentage of females among the older population, the ratio of older people to young people and the respective percentages of the population age 60 and over who are widowed, literate and in the labor force. The Census Bureau produced the wall chart with financial support from the Pan American Health Organization and the U.S. National Institute on Aging. A paper version of the wall chart may be obtained from the Census Bureau's Public Information Office.-X-The U.S. Census Bureau, pre-eminent collector and disseminator of timely, relevant and quality data about the people and the economy of the United States, conducts a population and housing census every 10 years, an economic census every five years and more than 100 demographic and economic surveys every year, all of them evolving from the first census in 1790.
