Age, being a characteristic that every society uses to move people into and out of statuses, roles, rights, and obligations, is perceived differently in various societies. The process of creating social categories based on age is known as age grading and ageing, and varies from culture to culture, and from one historical period to another. We will see how changes in the proportion of people in a population at each age level have important social consequences in different societies. One of our objectives in this chapter is to outline the connotation of such changes in Asia and Europe. Population ageing or graying (Conception, 1996), due to increased longevity and a declining birth rate, is more prevalent in the industrial world (Europe) rather than the developing world (Asia). The chapter explains how, due to changes in population structure, ageing will alter trends in the decades ahead with special reference to Asia.
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Sheykhi, M.T. (2007). Ageing and Quality of Life in Asia and Europe: A Comparative Sociological Appraisal. In: Mollenkopf, H., Walker, A. (eds) Quality of Life in Old Age. Social Indicators Research Series, vol 31. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-5682-6_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-5682-6_10
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