Figure 1.

World Distribution of Older Women (60+): 1997 and 2025

Developing

countries

58%

Developed

countries

42%

Developing

countries

71%

Developed

countries

29%

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, International Programs Center.

1997 2025

International Brief

by Yvonne J. Gist and Victoria A. Velkoff

International Programs Center

IB/97-3

Issued December 1997

U.S. Department of Commerce

Economics and Statistics Administration

Demographic Dimensions BUREAU OF THE CENSUS

The United Nations’ Fourth

World Conference on Women

in 1995 prepared a platform which

provides an analysis of obstacles

facing the world’s women, including older women, and outlines

a series of policy solutions for

removing these obstacles. Conference documents emphasize a

life-cycle approach to the

understanding of women’s status,

recognizing the importance of age

and the relationship between life

course events and well-being in

later life. Improvements in health,

education, and economic security

will have an enormous impact on

how women fare as they age.

Women are the majority of the

older1 population in virtually all

nations and face different circumstances and challenges than men

as they age. Older women are

more likely to be widowed, to live

alone, and to live in poverty. Older

women tend to have lower educational attainment, less formal labor

force experience, and more family

caregiving responsibilities than do

older men. In this brief, we will

examine the demographics that

underlie the socioeconomic differences of gender and aging. 

1 The term “older” is an arbitrary concept

used only for crossnational comparative

purposes. In this brief, “older” generally

refers to ages 60 and over.

Majority of Older Women Live

in Developing Countries

In 1997, approximately 10 percent

(561 million) of the world’s population is aged 60 years and older,

and this level is projected to

increase to 15 percent by 2025.

Persons aged 60 and over represent 19 percent of the total population in developed countries and 7

percent in the developing world.2

By the year 2025, these figures

will increase to approximately 27

and 13 percent, respectively.

Women constitute 55 percent of all

persons aged 60 and over, and the

2 The “developed” and “developing”

country categories used in this brief

correspond to the “more developed” and

“less developed” classification employed

by the United Nations. Developed countries comprise all nations in Europe and

North America, plus Japan, Australia,

and New Zealand. The remaining nations

of the world are considered to be

developing countries.

majority (58 percent ) of the

world’s 310 million older women

live in developing countries. By

2025, nearly three-quarters of the

world’s older women are expected

to reside in what is known today

as the developing world (Figure 1).

Although population aging currently is more advanced in developed

countries (in terms of the proportion of all persons aged 60 and

over), developing countries too are

aging, and at a much more rapid

pace than has been the case in

most developed nations because

of faster declines in fertility. In at

least 75 developing countries, the

projected increase in the number

of older women between 1997 and

2025 exceeds 150 percent, while

in many developed countries the

increase is less than 50 percent

(Figure 2). Sub-Saharan Africa’s

15 million older women are projected to more than double to
Figure 2.Percent Increase for Women Aged 60 and Over: 1997 to 2025

Percent Increase

Under 5050 to 99

100 to 149

150 and over
60–69 70–79 80+ 60–69 70–79 80+

Figure 3.

Percent Female in Older Age Groups: 1997 and 2025

51

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, International Programs Center.

52

54 55

59

61

54 53

61

56

69

64

1997

2025

Developing countries Developed countries

3

33 million by 2025; by comparison,

the total number of older women in

Europe is expected to increase

only 40 percent. The older women

of Asia number 144 million today,

more than the total number of

older women in all developed

countries combined. By 2025, the

Asian number is expected to

mushroom to 355 million. 

The Feminization of Later Life

In all regions and practically all

countries of the world, women

account for the majority of the

older population, and the proportion female increases with age.

On the global level, women make

up just over half of the age group

60-69, but they account for 65

percent of the oldest old (80 years

and older). The term the feminization of later life has been used

to describe how women predominate at older ages and how the

proportions increase with advancing age (Arber and Ginn, 1994).

There are differences in the

gender imbalance between

developed and developing

regions of the world. In 

developed countries, women

currently account for a larger share

of the older population than they

do in developing countries (Figure

3). If the trend in developingcountry mortality approximates

what has been observed in industrialized nations, the future gap

between male and female life

expectancy would be expected to

widen; one likely result would be

an increasing proportion female at

older ages. In developed countries, on the other hand, demographers expect that life expectancy

will increase somewhat faster for

males than for females, with

resulting declines in the proportion

female at older ages. 

One Person in Six May Be

an Older Woman

Another way to appreciate the

numbers and growth of the older

female population is to look at

older women as a percent of total

population. As the years progress,

the proportion of older women

in the general population is anticipated to steadily increase in both

developing and developed countries. In most developed countries,

older women currently account for

more than 10 percent of the total

population (Figure 4). By 2025,

many national proportions will

exceed 15 percent, and in Italy

and Japan, older women will

constitute more than 18 percent of

the total population. In other

words, 1 out of every 6 Italians

and Japanese will be an older

woman. Although older women

account for a smaller proportion of

total population in developing

countries, proportions are expected to increase in these countries as well, and to more than

double in the world’s most populous nation, China.

Women Live Longer Than Men

 In almost all countries of the

world, females enjoy an advantage

over males in terms of life expectancy. In developed countries, the

average gap in life expectancy

between the sexes is approximately seven years. In some countries

(e.g., Russia, Estonia, Belarus),

gender differentials in life expectancy exceed 10 years as a result

of unusually high levels of current

adult male mortality. In contrast,

developing countries have a

relatively small 3-year difference in

life expectancy between the sexes

(Figure 5). This smaller differential

is, at least in part, due to high

levels of maternal mortality in

some developing countries.

The female advantage in life

expectancy continues throughout

the life course. In developed

countries, women at age 60 can

expect to live, on average, 3 to 5

years longer than their male

counterparts. The female advantage is smaller in developing

countries, ranging from less than a

year to nearly four years. Although women tend to live longer

than men, they also tend to spend

more of their older years in a

disabled state (Colvez, 1996). 
Figure 5.

Years of Life Expectancy at Birth: 1955, 1997, and 2025

Males Females Males Females

42

Source: United Nations, 1995 and U.S. Bureau of the Census, International Programs Center.

Figure 4.

Older Women as a Percent of the

Total Population: 1997 and 2025

5.0

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, International Programs Center.

Canada

United

States

Sweden

Russia

France

9.4

4.1

3.7

7.2

3.6

6.7

3.3

7.0

3.4

10.7

13.3

9.5

15.6

12.3

14.1

11.3

16.7

11.8

15.5

1997

2025

China

Tajikistan

Indonesia

India

Ecuador

Developed countries

Developing countries

73

63

44

66

60

82

78

70

76

71

65

Developing countries Developed countries

1955

1997

2025

4

Oldest Old Increasing Rapidly

The fastest-growing segment of

most populations is the oldest old,

defined here as persons aged 80

and over (Figure 6). Currently in

developed countries, 19 percent of

all older women are aged 80 years

or older, and by 2025 nearly

one-quarter of all older women will

be in this age group. The oldest

old are a smaller proportion of

older women in developing countries (9 percent in 1997), but they

are growing at a much faster pace,

and will more than triple in number

by 2025. Because of the gender

differentials in life expectancy

mentioned above, the oldest old

account for a smaller proportion of

older men in both the developed

and developing world (12 and 7

percent, respectively, in 1997).

The growth of the oldest old has

many important implications for

social planning, since these

individuals are more likely to be in

poorer health and require more

services than the younger old.

Given the preponderance of

women among the oldest old (e.g.,

higher than 70 percent in

Germany and Ukraine), many of

the needs of the oldest old are

actually the needs of women.

Older Women More Likely Than

Men to Live in Urban Areas

In keeping with the worldwide

trend toward increased urbanization, the older populations of both

developed and developing regions

have become more concentrated

in cities during the last two decades. At the same time, however, many rural areas have become

disproportionately “old”. This is a

result of the outflow of young

adults from rural areas to urban

centers in search of work, and in

some cases, the return migration

of older adults from cities back to

their childhood homes. Rural-tourban population shifts can have

repercussions for older persons in

rural areas, who may find themselves without direct familial 
0

1

2

3

4

5

1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025

Figure 6.

Average Annual Growth Rate for the

Female Population: 1995 to 2025

Percent

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, International Programs Center.

Figure 7.

Percent Widowed at Ages 60

and Over: Circa 1990

Developing countries 80+

Developed countries all ages

Developing countries all ages

Developed countries 80+

52

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, International Programs Center.

China

South

Africa

Mexico

Indonesia

Ecuador

39

12

49

12

37

11

58

14

37

24

11

42

11

38

12

41

14

46

10

Female

Male

Canada

United

States

Sweden

Netherlands

France

Developing countries

Developed countries

5

support and, in some cases, with

the added responsibility of raising

grandchildren in the absence of

migrating children.

In many countries, older

women are more likely to live

in urban areas than are older

men. This gender difference in

residential concentration appears

to be related partly to stages in

the life cycle. Older women are

more likely to be disabled and

to be widowed than are older

men. Urban living may provide

older women, especially widows,

the support benefits of living

near their children and the

proximity to specialized health

and social services (Kinsella and

Taeuber, 1993). 

Older Women Much More Likely

to be Widowed Than Older Men

The circumstances of older

women’s lives depend in large part

on their marital status. Married

older women have a lower probability of living in poverty than do

their unmarried counterparts.

Marital status also strongly influences an older woman’s living

arrangements. Throughout much

of the world, women tend to marry

men older than themselves. This,

combined with higher female life

expectancy, increases the chances

that a woman will outlive her

spouse and spend a portion of her

older years living on her own or

with adult children. In most countries, older women are much more

likely to be widowed than are older

men (Figure 7).

Women are having fewer children

in both the developing and developed world. In just the last 17

years (1980-1997), the world’s

total fertility rate has declined from

4.1 children to 2.9 children per

woman. Many developing countries now have total fertility rates

near or below the population

replacement level of 2.1. Declining fertility eventually means

fewer children to care for aging
6

parents. At the same time, increased longevity has enhanced

the joint survival of different generations. Family structures are

changing so that there is an

increase in the number of generations alive at one time and a

decline in the number of family

members within each generation

(Blieszner and Bedford, 1995). As

a result, the duration of the relationships between an older woman

and her children and grandchildren

has lengthened (Marshall and

McPherson, 1994). 

As fertility rates fall and social

norms change vis-a-vis divorce

and marital separation, an area of

increasing concern is the status of

unmarried or childless older

women. There are relatively high

rates of non-marriage among older

women in Scandinavia and parts

of the Caribbean (e.g., 12 percent

of older women in Finland and 18

percent of older women in Trinidad

and Tobago have never married).

In the United States, one-sixth or

more of women in some Baby

Boom cohorts are childless.

Involuntary infertility is a problem

in many African countries, even

though rates of infertility have

been declining. In several countries in Central Africa in the 1980s,

more than 20 percent of women

aged 45 years and over were

childless (Evina, 1994). Many of

these women are likely to find

themselves without family support

in older age, and this issue may

become particularly critical in

countries where government and

community support for older

individuals is lacking. 

References 

Arber, S. and J. Ginn, 1994, “Women and

Aging”, Review in Clinical Gerontology 1994,

Vol. 4, pp. 349-358.

Blieszner, Rosemary and Victoria Hilkevitch

Bedford, 1995, Aging and the Family,

Westport, CT.

Colvez, Alain, 1996, “Disability Free Life

Expectancy”, in Shah Ebrahim and Alex

Kalache, eds., Epidemiology in Old

Age, London.

Evina, Akam, 1994, “Infertility in SubSaharan Africa”, in Thérèse Locoh and

Véronique Hertrich, eds., The Onset of Fertility Transition in Sub-Saharan Africa, Liege.

Marshall, Victor W. and Barry D.

McPherson, 1994, Aging: Canadian

Perspectives, Peterborough, Ontario.

McDevitt, Thomas M., 1996, World Population Profile: 1996, U.S. Bureau of the Census, Report WP/96, Washington, D.C.

Kinsella, Kevin and Cynthia M. Taeuber,

1993, An Aging World II, U.S. Bureau of the

Census International Population Report No.

P95/92-3, Washington, DC.

United Nations, 1995, World Population

Prospects: The 1994 Revision, New

York, NY.

This profile, the first in a series,

was written by Yvonne J. Gist

and Victoria A. Velkoff and

produced with the support of

the Office of the Demography

of Aging, Behavioral and Social

Research Program, U.S. National

Institute on Aging. Future

Gender and Aging profiles

will examine issues of health,

economic security, and care–

giving, and how the world’s societies have different responses 

to the lives and needs of

older persons. 
7

Table 1.

Population Indicators by Age and Sex

Population aged 60 and over (in 000’s) Years of life expectancy Percent widowed Percent literate

1997 2025 at birth 1997 aged 60 and over aged 60 and over

Country Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female

Afghanistan 558 501 1434 1344 47 46 N/A N/A N/A N/A

Algeria 808 910 2316 2500 68 70 7 55 193 43

Argentina 2118 2811 3591 4698 71 78 12 45 93 91

Australia 1339 1641 2719 3194 77 83 11 40 (4) (4)

Bangladesh 3469 2962 8551 8657 56 56 7 68 30 5

Brazil 5061 6958 13197 17535 57 66 13 47 59 54

Canada 2112 2724 4515 5506 76 83 10 39 (4) (4)

China 56993 61303 137234 153406 69 72 24 52 50 11

Colombia 1172 1434 3801 4747 70 76 15 46 73 64

Egypt 1736 2056 4319 5447 60 64 12 60 31 7

Ethiopia 1223 1366 2108 2746 45 48 N/A N/A 122 32

France 5037 6925 8136 10175 75 83 14 46 (4) (4)

Germany 7138 10636 12811 14868 73 79 17 50 (4) (4)

India 31662 32242 80620 84476 60 61 20 51 151 71

Indonesia 6112 7440 17189 20648 60 64 11 58 682 382

Italy 5515 7496 8020 9969 75 82 12 43 953 923

Japan 11738 15280 17606 22020 77 83 10 44 (4) (4)

Kenya 536 642 996 1381 54 55 N/A N/A 11 25

Malaysia 568 692 1756 2265 67 73 14 54 43 9

Mexico 2972 3473 7915 10579 70 78 12 37 71 59

Morocco 927 1054 2546 3041 68 72 7 62 15 1

Nepal 557 546 1291 1393 54 55 18 48 24 3

Pakistan 4065 4052 8289 9412 58 60 12 47 18 5

Peru 809 922 2293 2587 67 72 17 43 763 493

Philippines 1901 2271 5099 6541 63 69 15 41 783 723

Poland 2486 3730 4115 5740 68 77 14 50 (4) (4)

Romania 1720 2281 1890 2733 66 74 14 47 953 823

Russia 8402 16676 13219 21011 57 71 12 55 973 843

South Africa 1205 1659 1905 2977 54 58 11 49 593 553

South Korea 1833 2645 5770 6950 70 78 12 64 N/A N/A

Spain 3639 4777 5257 6516 75 82 11 39 943 853

Sri Lanka 822 863 1936 2471 70 75 13 50 83 56

Sudan 677 549 1623 1975 55 57 7 56 26 4

Taiwan 1311 1157 2947 3321 74 79 14 42 78 37

Tanzania 624 726 687 1163 40 43 8 45 273 53

Thailand 2424 2920 6100 8060 65 73 17 53 82 62

Turkey 2510 2818 6558 7331 70 75 11 45 75 41

Ukraine 3478 6389 4556 7027 62 72 13 55 (4) (4)

United Kingdom 5117 6871 7720 9303 74 79 14 43 (4) (4)

United States 18723 25436 37977 44524 73 79 13 47 91 93

Uzbekistan 675 954 1584 2094 61 69 15 59 (4) (4)

Venezuela 682 775 2094 2512 69 76 10 35 752 662

Notes:

N/A Data not available.

1 Data refer to ages 50 and over.

2 Data refer to ages 55 and over.

3 Data refer to ages 65 and over.

4 When literacy among adult cohorts becomes pervasive, many industrialized nations no longer collect and/or tabulate statistics on literacy.

Such countries may report to international organizations that overall adult literacy is essentially universal (98 percent or more). The

experience of some industrialized countries that do collect and tabulate literacy data suggests that, at least among older adult cohorts, the

actual literacy rate is lower than commonly assumed.

The countries included in this table were chosen with consideration to population size and data availability.

Data for marital status and literacy represent the latest available data from the period 1980 to 1997.

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, International Programs Center, International Data Base.
8

Table 2.

Total and Older Population by Region: 1997 and 2025

( Numbers in thousands)

1997

80 and over

Percent aged 60 as a percent

Aged 60 and over and over Aged 80 and over of 60 and over

Total Total

Region male female Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female

World 2,945,961 2,904,473 251,983 309,443 9 11 22,703 41,837 9 14

Asia 1,695,570 1,620,779 131,500 144,122 8 9 9,576 14,274 7 10

Near East 82,869 77,903 4,869 5,316 6 7 411 586 8 11

Baltics 3,509 4,010 502 911 14 23 49 139 10 15

Newly Independent States 134,914 150,588 15,388 28,610 11 19 1,133 4,182 7 15

Eastern Europe 58,484 61,559 8,745 12,369 15 20 806 1,678 9 14

Western Europe 190,196 198,161 34,146 47,086 18 24 4,527 10,073 13 21

Latin America/Caribbean 246,045 250,227 17,023 21,314 7 9 1,702 2,720 10 13

North America 145,361 151,776 20,837 28,162 14 19 3,092 6,288 15 22

Oceania 14,368 14,270 1,745 2,117 12 15 221 410 13 19

Sub-Saharan Africa 304,111 305,889 13,225 14,913 4 5 876 1,127 7 8

North Africa 70,534 69,311 4,004 4,523 6 7 309 360 8 8

2025

80 and over

Percent aged 60 as a percent

Aged 60 and over and over Aged 80 and over of the elderly

Total Total

Region male female Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female

World 3,975,344 3,960,741 545,726 645,037 14 16 61,690 100,478 11 16

Asia 2,211,498 2,162,264 314,728 354,542 14 16 31,386 47,608 10 13

Near East 153,599 148,097 14,979 14,798 10 10 1,624 2,197 11 15

Baltics 3,412 3,778 661 1,040 19 28 91 217 14 21

Newly Independent States 151,101 164,628 24,017 37,237 16 23 2,302 5,990 10 16

Eastern Europe 58,981 62,685 12,413 17,272 21 28 1,565 3,376 13 20

Western Europe 194,960 199,972 54,671 66,062 28 33 9,882 16,883 18 26

Latin America/Caribbean 330,974 340,479 42,806 54,787 13 16 4,969 8,565 12 16

North America 181,955 189,119 42,501 50,039 23 26 6,373 9,986 15 20

Oceania 18,768 18,829 3,594 4,207 19 22 587 897 16 21

Sub-Saharan Africa 559,255 561,216 24,993 32,735 4 6 2,074 3,365 8 10

North Africa 110,842 109,674 10,362 12,319 9 11 839 1,393 8 11

Note: For a list of the countries in each region, see McDevitt, 1996.

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, International Programs Center, International Data Base.