OVERVIEW OF DEMOGRAPHIC AGING, ROMANIA IN THE EUROPEAN CONTEXT

Unprecedented demographic changes announced in the twentieth century and continues to rise in this century, are about to change profoundly the world. Extending life expectancy and falling birth rates are about to undertake major structural changes in all human societies - such as the historical phenomenon of inversion in the proportion of young people and older people. Aging her profound and lasting consequences for all countries is a phenomenon of great importance and also a challenge still inexperienced. Underlying global population ageing is a process known as the “demographic transition” in which mortality and then fertility decline from higher to lower levels. Decreasing fertility along with lengthening life expectancy has reshaped the age structure of the population in most regions of the planet by shifting relative weight from younger to older groups. The role of international migration in changing age distributions has been far less important than that of fertility and mortality. This phenomenon shows that: population ageing is unprecedented, without parallel in human history and the twenty-first century will witness even more rapid ageing than did the century just past; population ageing is pervasive, a global phenomenon affecting every man, woman and child but countries are at very different stages of the process, and the pace of change differs greatly; countries that started the process later will have less time to adjust; population ageing is enduring: we will not return to the young populations that our ancestors knew; population ageing has profound implications for many facets of human life.