 Key facts and figures about German population:

Population: 81 million (2014 estimate)

Life expectancy: Men: 78 years, Women: 83 years

Population Growth rate: -0.18% (2014 estimate)

Birth rate: 8.42 / 1,000 (2014 estimate)
Death rate: 11.2 / 1,000 (2014 estimate)
Population over 65: 21% (2014 estimate)
Population under 15: 13% (2014 estimate)
Net migration 2013: +437,000
Urban population (2012): 74%
Health care satisfaction
In a study conducted in 1992, Louis Harris interviewed
948 elderly people over the age of 65 from Germany in
order to have a better understanding of their health care
access satisfaction and quality of life. 29% of German
elderly are satisfied with their health care. 54% report
having fair or poor health; and 38% report having six or
more physician contacts over the past six months. 6% of
German elderly viewed out-of-pocket medical expenses
as a serious issue, 15% viewed Germany’s system of
paying for medical care as “inadequate”. Overall, a
significant proportion of the elderly population are
satisfied with their health care, and a very small amount
view out-of-pocket medical expenses as a serious issue.
Taking this into account along with the long-term care
services the elderly are provided, the German elderly
generally have good access to short-term and long-term
care insurance..
 Germany is bracing itself for the loss of
5 million workers over the next 15 years as it
becomes Europe's first and biggest test of the
problems caused by an ageing and declining
population.
 Having used generous job subsidies to steer
the labour market through the country's
worst downturn since the 1930s, labour and
social affairs minister Ralf Brauksiepe told the
Guardian that a longer working life and an
influx of skilled workers from overseas were
the answer to the demographic time bomb.
 In India, around 2/3rd of the population is
below or close to 30, so does talking about
old age problems (which exist) sound
awkward?
 Consider this, out of every 10 elderly couples
in India, more than 6 are forced by their
children to leave their homes. With no place
to go and all hopes lost, the elderly have to
resort to old age homes, which do not
guarantee first class treatment.
 The elderly population in India is continuously increasing
and also the problems faced by these people are increasing
simultaneously. The number of people in old age homes is
constantly increasing and also most of the parents are now
deciding to live in old age homes rather than living with their
children. Nowadays these people are facing the problems like
lack of care, emotional support and economic support from
the family etc. Our culture recognizes the status of the
parents as that of God. A moral duty is put on the children to
take care of their parents. But nowadays what we are
observing in our society is that the children are not willing to
take care of their parents, they do not want to spend money
on them, they are treating their parents as aliens, they do not
want to share an emotional bond with parents. These
children are forgetting that the foundation of their life is built
up by the parents. They are forgetting their moral and ethical
duties towards their parents. This is because of fast life,
industrialization, money oriented minds, inflation etc.
Children have no time to look after their parents because of
their busy schedule and as a consequence of this situation
the elders are getting neglected. At this age almost all the
people need some kind of support.
 Population Aging in India
The reduction in fertility level, reinforced by steady increase in the life
expectancy has produced fundamental changes in the age structure of the
population, which in turn leads to the aging population. The analysis of
historical patterns of mortality and fertility decline in India indicates that th
process of population aging intensified only in the 1990's. The older
population of India, which was 56.7 million in 1991, is 72 million in 2001
and is expected to grow to 137 million by 2021. Today India is home to on
out of every ten senior citizens of the world. Both the absolute and relative
size of the population of the elderly in India will gain in strength in future.
Among the total elderly population, those who live in rural areas constitute
78 percent. Sex ratio in elderly population, which was 928 as compared to
927 in total population in the year 1996, is projected to become 1031 by
the year 2016 as compared to 935 in the total population. The data on old
age dependency ratio is slowly increasing in both rural and urban areas.
Both for men and women, this figure is quite higher in rural areas when
compared with that of urban areas. More than half of the elderly
populations were married and among those who were widowed, 64 percen
were women as compared to 19 percent of men. Among the old-old (70
years and above), 80 percent were widows compared to 27 percent
widowers. Men compared to women are found to be economically more
active. In 1991, 60 percent of the males were main workers whereas only 1
percent of the females were main workers. Out of the main workers in the
60+ age group, 78 percent of the males and 84 percent of the females we
in the agricultural sector. Since women's economic position depends large
on marital status, women who are widowed and living alone are found to b
the worst among the poor and vulnerable.
Problems faced by old people

Among the several problems of the elderly in our society,

economic problems occupy an important position. Mass
poverty is the Indian reality and the vast majority of the
families have income far below the level, which would
ensure a reasonable standard of living. The Ministry of
Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India
(1999) in its document on the National Policy for Older
Persons, has relied on the figure of 33 percent of the
general population below poverty line and has concluded
that one-third of the population in 60 plus age group is
also below that level. Though this figure may be
understated from the older persons point of view, still
accepting this figure, the number of poor older persons
comes to about 23 millions. As people live longer and
into much advanced age (say 75 years and over), they
need more intensive and long term care, which in turn
may increase financial stress in the family. Inadequate
income is a major problem of elderly in India (Siva Raju,
2002). The most vulnerable are those who do not own
productive assets, have little or no savings or income
from investments made earlier, have no pension or
retirement benefits, and are not taken care of by their
children.
Made by:
Reshma.A.R