The Oxford Institute of Population Ageing was established in 1998 with funding from the National Institute on Aging, achieving Institute status in 2001.

Our aim is to undertake research into the implications of population change. We are a multi-disciplinary group with demography as our main disciplinary focus.

The Institute has 6 main Research Programmes:  

• Understanding Demographic Change
• Demography and Economy
• Demography and Society
• Bio-demography and Health
• Demography and Innovation
• Demography and Environment

and 2 Research Centres:

• Migration and Ageing Populations
• Policy Challenges of Ageing Populations

As the demographic transition has flowed across the globe so the demographic ageing of societies has become one of the major challenges for the 21st century.

As fertility has fallen, longevity has increased, with older people living longer and healthier old ages. Technology has altered employment patterns, social mores and demography have affected family forms, kinship roles and intergenerational relationships, and medical advances are extending healthy active life. The experience and meaning of old age is being transformed.

By 2020, one quarter of the UK's population will be over 60 years old, with forty percent of these over 75. By 2030 one quarter of the population of the Developed World will be over 65, and within Western Europe nearly half the population will be over 50 years of age.

Yet the largest number of older people will live in the Less Developed World, where some 900 million people will be aged over 60. Currently many of these older adults already live in acute poverty, lacking income support and the basics of primary health care services.

This demographic change provides not only challenges but also opportunities to harness the experience, expertise and creativity of such an historically large number of older people. The changing demography will have major implications for many aspects of family and intergenerational relationships, social networks, and political, economic and consumer behaviour, in addition to the delivery of medical, health and social services, and welfare support.

Professor Sarah Harper
Director, Oxford Institute of Population Ageing  

The Oxford Institute of Population Ageing is committed to the:

• the production of cutting edge leading research
• creation of  dynamic partnerships with government, business, NGOs and the public
• wide dissemination of policy relevant findings
• training of tomorrow's researchers and professionals

  > Download the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing Brochure (pdf)