However, family support is weakening because of contraction in marriage rates, accelerated migration throughout the region and other social developments. Most older people are concentrated in urban areas, but the proportion of older people in rural areas is increasing, largely because of out-migration of younger groups. An accelerated aging of the population is expected owing to declines in fertility and lengthening of life expectancy. Economic hardship is widespread but countries differ in the extent to which absolute poverty concentrates among older people as opposed to other vulnerable groups. Though women universally have an edge over men in survival rates, in countries of the ECA region, the gender differential in life expectancy both at birth and at age 65 is the highest on record.
Pensions are the most important source of income for older people.
Not all pensioners are older than 60, however, and in many countries, actual payments are often intermittent and inadequate. Pensioners constitute a major segment of the population in many single-enterprise towns. Once the enterprises are restructured or closed, younger workers tend to move elsewhere in search of jobs, leaving the towns populated largely by older people. The proportion of pensioners among older people is likely to decline as a result of privatization and pension reform efforts. The number of people without pension rights has been increasing during the economic transition and this is likely to generate a substantial number of older people without pensions in coming decades.