Ageing Horizons

Publications

Ageing Horizons

Published in association with HelpAge International

As increases in life expectancy continue around the world, and as levels of childbearing remain stubbornly low or are in sharp decline governments, international agencies, NGOs, academic researchers and think tanks are all struggling to identify and analyse the challenges and opportunities the fundamental changes in the age structure of the populations present.

It is important to understand in this context that there is a difference between policy making for older people and policy making for ageing societies. Evidence-based policy making for an ageing society must build on good empirical research, research that sheds light on the effects of population ageing on complex social life.

Ageing Horizons will aim to publish work from around the globe that helps shape this important policy development at all levels – individual, family, community and society as a whole, not to mention the wider implications of global ageing when the world is also urbanising and warming.

The aim is to publish work with a view to:

informing policy makers and policy researchers of developments in the field;
identifying unanswered questions and unresolved problems.

All submitted work will be peer-reviewed.

Professor George W. Leeson

Editor, Ageing Horizons

Editorial

2025

Leeson, G.W. (2025) Editorial. Ageing Horizons

Editorial (PDF, 98 KB)

Ageing Horizons: Demographic change and social expenditure – Some evidence on the effects of population ageing in OECD countries

2025

Demographic change and social expenditure – Some evidence on the effects of population ageing in OECD countries (PDF, 430 KB)

Current Situation of Older Adults in Rural Bangladesh: Evidence from the YPSA ageing survey 2023-2024

2025

Khan, H. et al. (2025) Current Situation of Older Adults in Rural Bangladesh: Evidence from the YPSA ageing survey 2023-2024. Ageing Horizons, AG-2

Current Situation of Older Adults in Rural Bangladesh (PDF, 326 KB)

Ageing Horizons Issue 9, 2010: Ageing in Latin American, the Caribbean and the Iberian Peninsula

2010

Issue 9 (PDF, 1.60 MB)

Ageing Horizons Brief: Ageing emerging economies in Eastern Europe and Central Asia

2008

Emerging market economies in Eastern Europe and Central Asia have been growing rapidly over the last decade. Thanks to untapped natural resources, cheap labour, and the rising prosperity of a large army of consumers, some of these countries are attracting increasing international investment.

Ageing emerging economies in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (PDF, 343 KB)

Ageing Horizons Issue 8, 2008: The promise of lifelong learning

2008

Editorial: The Promise of Lifelong Learning by Alis Oancea (PDF, 356 KB)
Age and Productivity Capacity: Descriptions, Causes and Policy Options by Vegard Skirbekk (PDF, 162 KB)
Upskilling Older Workers by Ken Mayhew, Matt Elliott, and Bob Rijkers (PDF, 356 KB)
Age is just a Number? Rethinking Learning over the Lifecourse by Maria Slowey (PDF, 356 KB)
Intergenerational Learning and the Contributions of Older People by Sally Newman and Alan Hatton-Yeo (PDF, 356 KB)

Ageing Horizons Brief: Ageing workforces

2008

The workforces of different countries round the world vary considerably in their demographic characteristics. There are some countries, for example, in which only a minority of children can expect to survive to official retirement age; and relatively high mortality in middle age makes for a relatively young workforce.

Ageing workforces (PDF, 335 KB)

Ageing Horizons Issue 7, 2007: Fertility decline

2007

Editorial: Population Change and the Legitimacy of Population Policy by Kenneth Howse (PDF, 165 KB)
The Road to Low Fertility by David Coleman (PDF, 501 KB)
The Future of Human Reproduction: Will Birth Rates Recover or Continue to Fall? by Wolfgang Lutz (PDF, 292 KB)
Low Fertility and Policy by Peter McDonald (PDF, 157 KB)
Demographic Dividends: Determinants of Development or Merely Windows of Opportunity? by Ian Pool (PDF, 175 KB)
Data Brief - Fertility Decline: Trends, Drivers and Differences by Pavel Ovseiko (PDF, 711 KB)

Ageing Horizons Brief: Fertility decline: trends, drivers and differences

2007

If life expectancy increases and fertility remains constant, the age structure of the population changes: a greater proportion of the population falls into the older age groups.

Fertility decline (PDF, 359 KB)

Ageing Horizons Issue 6, 2007: Long-term care and ageing populations

2007

Editorial (PDF, 759 KB)
Long-term Care Policy: the Difficulties of Taking a Global View - Howse (PDF, 759 KB)
Securing Good Care for Older People: Taking the Long-term View - Davies (PDF, 758 KB)
Financing Long-term Care for Older People in England - Wittenberg and Malley (PDF, 759 KB)
Distributional Effects of Reform in Long-term Care - Karlsson (PDF, 759 KB)
A Journey through the Years: Ageing and Social Care - Jones (PDF, 758 KB)

Ageing Horizons Brief: Long-term care for older people

2007

In the end of the 18th century, Thomas Malthus maintained “the power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man” (Malthus, 1798).

Long-term care for older people (PDF, 435 KB)