THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, May 21, 1996 TAG: 9605210342
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines
The Census Bureau is issuing a wake-up call for America and Americans: You're getting older. Be prepared.
With Americans living longer, the elderly will make up an increasingly large proportion of the population in years to come. Today it's one in eight; by 2050, one in five.
``We still have a window of opportunity for policy makers and planners to prepare,'' Kevin Kinsella, chief of the bureau's Aging Studies Branch, said of the approaching explosion in the number of older people.
Yet it isn't just government but also individuals - those who are about to join senior society - who must be prepared.
``Aging isn't an older person's issue. It's everybody's issue. It's not those people: They're us,'' Nancy Henkin, director of the Center for Intergenerational Learning at Philadelphia's Temple University, said by telephone.
Henkin, who doesn't yet qualify for the elderly title - bestowed by the Census Bureau at age 65 - brings together elderly people and young folks in theater, dance and other programs that ``promote productive aging and help young people understand aging and know they will age, too.''
People in their 20s and 30s ``should focus on what they're really interested in doing, and they should focus on the fact that they are going to age,'' added 68-year-old Robert M. Lenon.
Lenon moved to Arlington, Va., from Kansas at age 62 and decided to launch a new career. He took courses to become a paralegal and now is an advocate for the elderly.
Not surprisingly, Lenon urges keeping active at every age: ``If I totally retired today or tomorrow, you'd probably be burying me in the next few days or week.''
The new census report, ``65+ in the United States,'' forecasts that the estimated 33 million Americans over age 65 in 1995 will grow to 53 million by 2020 and 80 million by 2050.
And the oldest-old, those age 85 and above, will be the fastest-growing segment, expected to double to 7 million by 2020 and to nearly 19 million by 2050.
``These oldest old men, and more frequently women, are much more likely than the young-old to live in nursing homes, to have substantial disabilities and to have quite restricted financial resources,'' said Linda Waite, director of the Center on Aging at the University of Chicago.
While most older people today receive assistance from their families or spouses, that could change, she said.
``The next 50 years may see sizable increases in the proportion of older men and women who lack family to help them,'' Waite said. ``More will reach older ages without ever having married; more will spend the end of their lives having divorced and not remarried. And baby boomers had relatively small families, giving them few children to call on for help later.''
``The aging of the population is changing American society in fundamental ways,'' said Richard M. Suzman, who heads the demography office in the government's National Institute on Aging. ``It's the equivalent of the waves of immigrants who came to the country, or the urbanization and industrialization of the country.''
The first members of the massive postwar baby boom generation turn 50 this year, and ``when they turn 65 it will have an explosive effect on all facets of society,'' Suzman said. About 75 million people were born in the United States during the boom years, 1946 through 1964.
KEYWORDS: ELDERLY SENIOR CITIZENS STATISTICS
CENSUS by CNB