Profiling the Elderly: Understanding Recent Trends in Acceleration of African Population Ageing

Henry V. Doctor, Columbia University

Recently, the world’s population has experienced a remarkable transition from a stage of high birth and death rates to one characterised by low death rates. The core of this transition has been the growth in the number and proportion of older persons. As the tempo of ageing in less developed countries (LDCs) is more rapid than in more developed countries (MDCs), LDCs will have less time to cope with the effects of population ageing than MDCs. We use African census data to assess the recent paths of population ageing, report on future levels of indicators of ageing and the speed at which they change. We supplement the conventional measures of ageing with ones that incorporate longevity change to provide a more understanding of how these dimensions are expected to evolve. We hope that this study will contribute to the knowledge of past and future acceleration of African population ageing.