Aging in Comparative Perspective

Seven societies serve as the case studies here: the United States, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Japan, China, Nepal and South Africa. Across them, the author traces how populations are growing older and how governments have responded, and in some places are still shaping their responses, to a shift in the age structure of their people.

Rather than treating aging as a single problem, the book weighs the difficulties each society has identified alongside the advantages that longer lives can bring. The contrasts between these very different countries are the point of the comparison, showing how economic conditions, cultural expectations and public policy shape what growing old means in each place.

The work is meant to feed into wider international discussion about aging. It will interest readers who study social policy, gerontology and demography, and anyone who wants to see how the same demographic change plays out in very different national contexts.