In Thailand, less than 6 percent of the population was over age 60 in 1985, and the proportion is expected to rise to 12 percent by 2020. Research at the Population Studies Center has responded to these trends. The aging of populations poses a wide spectrum of new research and policy issues in formal, social, and economic demography. Early studies were concerned with changes in age str ucture resulting from declines in fertility and mortality. Interests have now broadened to include the relationship of the elderly to their families, other social institutions, and the economy.
Current projects span the United States and many developing areas of the world.
In the United States they include studies of health, labor force activity, living arrangements and migration of the elderly, with special attention to ethnic and socioecon omic differentials. International projects include a study of mortality patterns among the elderly in the Xinjiang region of northeastern China, and a broad comparative study of the elderly in Asia. Students are attracted to new career opportunities in aging. Trainees fulfill the usual requirements of the PSC training program, while taking additional courses that focus directly on aging. During the past year, a new faculty member has been recruited in the area of aging.