Aging in America

LESSON 2.1 Demographics of Aging Required Readings

Hooyman & Kayak Text: Chapter One (Review) and Chapter Two.

http://www.prb.org/ This is the Population Reference Bureau website where you will find lots

of interesting material about the demographics of aging that you can use to describe factors

influencing aging in each of the three countries to be discussed in your paper for this lesson.

NOTE: Select box on right of screen “browse by region and country to get details re: each of the

three countries you want to investigate.

http://www.census.gov/ipe/www/idb NOTE: here’s where you’ll find more international data as

well as population pyramids for each of the three countries that you can cut and paste into your

paper for this unit (don’t forget to cite the source). Click on Enter Data Base; Click on Data

Access; Select country you want to see and click; Click on population pyramids on (yellow )bar

above data.

Written Assignment

The purpose of this paper is to examine selected United States demographics, and to compare

them with those of two other nations with significantly different population age distributions.

You will analyze some of the ways in which these factors impact the social, health, and

economic realities of each nation. You will also compare the U.S. with these two countries by

applying Modernization Theory to project how each demographic pattern might explain

differences in the roles of older people in each country.

Go to the homepage of the Population Reference Bureau website at http://www.prg.org/. Click

on “browse by Region/Country” in the bar on the right hand side of the page and choose the

following three countries, one at a time: United States, China, and Ethiopia. You will find

information about each of the countries outlined on their respective pages. Scrutinize this

information and compare one country to the other (it will probably be easier to print them off and

compare them in hard copy). Now, go to the U.S. Census Bureau international site

www.census.gov/ipc/www/idb and retrieve the population pyramids for each one of the

countries, and compare these as well.

Then, in a 5-8 page paper:

1. Cut and paste the appropriate population pyramids from the US International Census site

into your paper. Your pyramids should show the shape and proportion of various age

groups within each population.

2. Identify factors from the statistics listed for each country that you believe are important in

determining how people will age in these countries. The statistics listed include a wide

variety of factors that clearly impact upon the life of all residents. Explain why you chose

each of these factors, using your assigned readings, study notes, and other resources you

may wish to add, for support

3. Compare the statistics on these selected factors for each of the three countries. Discuss

differences and similarities among them.

4. Interpret your comparisons using Modernization Theory.

5. Picture yourself as a 65 year old living in these countries, and describe how you would see

your personal future in each one.