Super Age

A demographic futurist explains the coming Super Age—when there will be more people older than sixty-five than those younger than eighteen—and explores what it could mean for our collective future. Societies all over the world are getting older; the result of the fact that we are living longer and having fewer children. At some point in the near future, much of the developed world have at least twenty percent of their national populations over the age of sixty-five. Bradley Schurman calls this the Super Age. Today, Italy, Japan, and Germany have reached the Super Age, and another ten countries went over the tipping point in 2020. Thirty-five countries will be part of this club by the end of this decade. This seismic shift in the population can portend a period of tremendous growth—or leave swaths of the population behind. Schurman explains how changing demographics will affect government and business and touch all of our