FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1999
Public Information Office CB99-34
301-457-3030/301-457-3670 (fax)
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e-mail: pio@census.gov
V. Velkoff/V. Lawson
301-457-1371
Older People as Caregivers -- A Worldwide Phenomenon,
Census Bureau Reports
The Commerce Department's Census Bureau on the Internet today issued a
report showing that older people throughout the world are playing an
increasingly important role in caring for relatives.
"There is a perception that older people typically receive care from
younger people," said Victoria Velkoff, an author of Gender and Aging:
Caregiving, IB/98-3. "That image is changing. In many cases, the
elderly
are themselves the caregivers, whether they are caring for a spouse, a
sibling, a child or a grandchild." In this brief, elderly refers to anyone
age 60 and over.
The report also found that in many developed countries in the West,
older women are much more likely to live alone than are older men, partly
because they are more likely to be widowed than are men.
Other highlights of the study:
- For many older people, their spouse provides their primary care. This
occurs in both developed and developing nations, for both men and women.
- Pressure on the so-called "sandwich generation" -- the generation of
people who find themselves simultaneously caring for elderly parents and
their own children -- will increase in the next 25 years in most developed
nations.
- Developed countries are currently home to the majority of those age 80
and older, or about 36 million people. By 2015, however, the balance will
switch, with the majority of those 80+ residing in developing countries,
projected to be about 63 million people.
- Institutionalization of the elderly ranges from 1 percent to 10
percent in developed nations, but is less than 1 percent in most
developing nations.
Many of the data in the report are based on, or extracted from,
international sources. This profile, the third in a series, was produced
by the Census Bureau's International Programs Center, with the support of
the U.S. National Institute on Aging.
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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.
