Introduction to Sociology

Aging in Society

LEARNING OUTCOMES

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  Describe senior age groups and the study of the elderly population
  

Who Are the Elderly?

Figure 1. As senior citizens begin to make up a larger percentage of the United States, the organizations supporting them grow stronger. (Photo courtesy of Congressman George Miller/flickr)

What does it mean to be elderly? Some define it as an issue of physical health, while others simply define it by chronological age. The U.S. government, for example, typically classifies people aged sixty-five years old as elderly, at which point citizens are eligible for federal benefits such as Social Security and Medicare. The World Health Organization has no standard, other than noting that sixty-five years old is the commonly accepted definition in most core nations, but it suggests a cut-off somewhere between fifty and fifty-five years old for semi-peripheral nations, such as those in Africa (World Health Organization 2012).

AARP (formerly the American Association of Retired Persons) cites fifty as the eligible age of membership. It is interesting to note AARP’s name change; by taking the word “retired” out of its name, the organization can broaden its base to any older people in the United States, not just retirees. This is especially important now that many people are working to age seventy and beyond. There is an element of social construction, both local and global, in the way individuals and nations define who is elderly; that is, the shared meaning of the concept of elderly is created through interactions among people in society. This is exemplified by the truism that you are only as old as you feel.
Supercentenarians are people living to 110 years or more. In August 2014, there were seventy-five verified supercentenarians worldwide—seventy-three women and two men. These are people whose age has been carefully documented, but there are almost certainly others who have not been identified. The Gerontology Research Group (2014) estimates there are between 300 and 450 people worldwide who are at least 110 years of age.
Madame Jeanne Calment of France was the world’s oldest living person until she died at 122 years old; there are currently six women in the world whose ages are well documented as 115 years or older (Diebel 2014). As of April 2019, the Guinness Book of World Records recognizes supercentenarian Tanaka Kane as the world’s oldest living person. She was born in Japan on January 2, 1903. While living in Japan, Tanaka worked selling rice cakes with her husband and later moved to the United States after her husband’s death. At the age of 103, Tanaka survived colon cancer and even at age 116, was still enjoying calligraphy and the board game Othello in a nursing home in Fukuoka, Japan. Tanaka credits sleep, family and hope for her long life.
Centenarians are people living to be 100 years old, and they are approximately 1,000 times more common than supercentenarians. According to the United States Census, in 2016 there were approximately 53,364 centenarians in the United States down from 80,0000 in 2010.^[1] They make up one of the fastest-growing segments of the population (Boston University School of Medicine 2014).
The aging of the U.S. population has significant ramifications for social institutions such as business, education, the healthcare industry, and the family, as well as for the many cultural norms and traditions that focus on interactions with and social roles for older people. “Old” is a socially defined concept, and the way we think about aging is likely to change as the population ages.
We generally classify the elderly as the population above age 65. About 15.2 percent of the U.S. population or 49.2 million Americans are 65 and older.^[2] This number is expected to grow to 98.2 million by the year 2060, at which time people in this age group will comprise nearly one in four U.S. residents. Of this number, 19.7 million will be age 85 or older. Developmental changes vary considerably among this population, so it is further divided into categories of 65 plus, 85 plus, and centenarians for comparison by the census.^[3]