Global demographic change and grandparenthood

ABSTRACT

Life expectancies at birth have increased at the global level from 47 years in the mid-twentieth century to around 71 years today, and are expected to rise to 78 years by the mid-twenty-first century and to 83 years by the end of the century. The proportion of the world’s population aged 65 years and over has increased from 5% in the mid-twentieth century to just over 8% in 2015, and by 2050, it is expected to reach almost 16%, equating to more than 1.5 billion people. The end of the century will see 23% and 2.5 billion of the world’s population aged 65 years and over. In newly ageing populations, fertility has often declined dramatically. This presents challenges to individuals, families and societies, not least because many of these societies rely on family-based support. The traditional family is shrinking and its role is changing. As we live longer, we are grandparents for longer and grandparenthood in the modern family is changing. This paper considers global demographic change and grandparenthood, and utilises data from Oxford’s Global Ageing Survey to understand changing family roles and attitudes to family, which impact on grandparenthood.

KEYWORDS:

• Demographic change
• families
• grandparents

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Dr. George W. Leeson is Director of the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing at the University of Oxford and Senior Research Fellow in demography. He is also a Fellow of Kellogg College, Oxford, as well as a member of the Oxford Martin School and the University's Department of Sociology. His research interests are in the socio-economic-demographic aspects of ageing populations, and he is responsible for Oxford's Global Ageing Survey carried out in three waves in more than 20 countries and including approximately 45,000 persons aged 40-79 years. Dr. Leeson is Visiting Professor of Social Demography at the University of Guanajuato-Leon in Mexico.

Additional information

Funding

The research at the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing, which underlies this paper, has been supported by a grant from the Oxford Martin School for the Demographic Forecasting Programme of the Institute.