The aging trend in the United States
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- One fact about the aging trend in the United States regards the greying of America in which the aging population is progressively becoming large. The projection indicates that by 2034 older adults will outnumber kids, which is a trend that has not happened before in U.S history. One fact that makes this trend inescapable is the current middle-aged population that has already outnumbered children. The U.S Census Bureau predicts that by 2034 older adults age 65+ will have reached 77.0 million, while children below age 18 will number 76.5 million. Although this trend will happen for the first time in the U.S, it is not new for other countries such as Japan, which has the oldest population worldwide of one in every four individuals aged 65 and above.
Some of the factors that have influenced this trend are the fewer number of children people are having, declining fertility, and longer life expectancy. Another significant driving force backing America's aging population is the baby boomers, which is a large generation in the U.S that always leave a significant imprint on the U.S population. For instance, after their birth, the ranks of the babyish swelled, followed by the swelling of the workforce as they approached adulthood. In the same capacity, boomers will cause expansion of the population of older adults as they exit middle age. The trend in the aging population will create higher demands for healthcare and home-based care.
- My thought on the concept of leisure is the freedom an individual has from tasks, learning activities, or other services. For instance, my leisure time is at that moment after I finish my work and every errand for my day.
Leisure is distinct from recreation or entrainment in that while leisure time refers to the freedom one gets by the termination of tasks, recreation time or entrainment refers to occupations or hobbies such as games that delight, please or charm an individual.
One thing I would do in my leisure time is listening to selected music. I expect to enjoy listening to the songs of my interest in 10, 20, or even 30 years because good music changes my moods and emotions positively. Music also helps me to develop and maintain my identity, which depends on the theme of the music.
- Demographic Transition Theory explains how a change in birth rate and death rate can affect the growth rate in a particular population. According to the theory, a population cycle starts with a decline in the death rate, which results in rapid growth in population as the second phase and finally ends with a fall in the birth rate as the last phase. Demographic transition theory is relevant to a course on the aging population because, in its authority, a fall in death rate happens when there is economic development. Additionally, economic development affects the correlation between death rate and birth rate in which a population has to go through different phases of population growth, which are high population growth, stationary growth, early expanding population growth, and low-stationary growth and diminishing growth. Demographic transition theory states that the growth trend in any population must follow these four phases during the process of economic development.
Changing birth and death rates that counteract each other characterize the first stage. during the second phase, the death rate falls while the birth rate is high and constant. During the third stage, the birth rate on comparing with the death-rate experiences a rapid decline. In the fourth stage, the birth rate and death rate are low and near balance. Demographic Transition Theory, therefore, explains the impacts of fertility and mortality rates on the age distribution.