The world is growing old, and its population is greying. One in 10 people today is over the age of 60. By 2050 this proportion will have doubled to one in five (UN statistics). Compared to developed countries, populations of developing countries are ageing more quickly, albeit from a lower starting point.
Looking to the future, the major increase in the world's population is expected in less developed countries. By 2025 more than 70 per cent of older people are expected to live in the developing world.
The pace at which this is happening is quite striking. In 1865 the proportion of France's population aged 65 or older was 7 per cent. By 1980, 115 years later, this had increased to 14 per cent.
In Japan the same increase took place in 26 years (197096); it will take Jamaica 18 years (2015-33) for its population to age to the same extent.
Such a rapid increase in the age of the world's population is unprecedented. In 1995, 15.4 per cent of the European population was aged 65 or older, and this figure is expected to rise to 22 per cent by 2025. By 2005 it is expected that the number of people over 80 will increase to 18.6 per cent.
In 1995 Tony Fahy of the ESRI estimated an increase of 29.5 per cent in the number of over-65s between 1991 and 2011 in this State. He pointed out that ageing was reflected not only in growth of the population aged 65 and older but also in "secondary ageing", that is, in the growth of the number of those aged 80 and older.
The current attempts at ringfencing the EU against migrants contributes to the shrinking of the population.
The overall response to the ageing of the world's population has been negative, ranging from apathy to self-centred concern about the social and economic demands. In the German Bundestag a call was made to withdraw the right to vote from people aged over 70.
While most people would be rightly shocked at such a call, the reality is that the economic capitalist demand for what is regarded as efficiency and clawbacks on public spending inexorably leads to a diminution of citizenship.
The demand from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund for structural adjustment programmes in developing countries further undermines not only older people's rights to full political citizenship but also their right to a decent standard of living.
In a globalised marketplace ageing is presented as a depreciating asset. Work/dependency ratios, cost-benefit analysis, pensions, welfare and care demands are the dominant concerns.
It is always a very small proportion of people that participate in civil society and, of those that do, men and the middle class are over-represented. The older age group is predominantly female, and women of all ages are generally under-represented in policy decision-making.
Not only are many older people excluded from full citizenship through lack of investment in their education, healthcare, suitable transport for those with disabilities; they are visibly excluded from public life. Arbitrary retirement ages are set, as outlined recently by Garret FitzGerald in this newspaper, with no regard for the inclination or the needs of the forced retiree.
Few television programmes feature older people and in those that do they are often insensitively portrayed. When feminists first complained of sexism they were accused (among other things) of not having a sense of humour. Perhaps the same will be said of older people and their advocates.
Despite what might be perceived as this gloomy scenario, statutory bodies, non-governmental organisations and older people themselves are charting new territory, challenging negative perceptions and stereotypes.
The United Nations has called for full and active participation of all older people in society "to facilitate and contribute to the creation of a society of all ages" (1999 Year of Older People).
The proposal put forward in the Bundestag is a far cry from the objective of the International Federation on Ageing. This is to add life to the years that have been added to life, by assuring older people of independence, participation, care, self-fulfilment and dignity.
The UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, has called on the international community to adapt to this demographic revolution. We need, he argued, "nothing less than a dramatic reorientation of attitudes, ideas and policies towards ageing". Dismissive views and discriminatory practices against older people should be challenged.
Society could benefit from the knowledge, experience and wisdom of older people, within and without the workplace. Instead, these important qualities are all too often marginalised or allowed to lie dormant.
The level of exclusion of older people is such that both the EU and the UN have in the last decade identified the need for specific programmes to challenge such negative stereotyping.
Around the world new and exciting programmes, in conjunction with older people, are being pioneered and developed. These initiatives can provide a powerful springboard for creating a new age for old age, for shaping a society that involves older, middle-aged and young people, the healthy and those of poor health, the active and the frail. This is the real challenge.
The issue of ageing must be brought from the periphery to the centre of the global agenda, so that public policy more accurately reflects the economic and social needs of a rapidly ageing world. Given that we as a society have two years to prepare for the Second World Assembly on Ageing in 2002 in Madrid, the time for such reappraisal is now.
Peadar King is a freelance researcher and independent film-maker