Emerging Evolution Trends of Studies on Age-Friendly Cities and Communities : A Scientometric Review

Population ageing, together with urbanization, has become one of the greatest challenges throughout the world in the 21st century. It is estimated that one million people turn 60 each month world widely. By 2050, more than 20 percent of the population globally is supposed to be 60 years old or over. Thus, there will be an increasing need for age-friendly communities, services and structures. Many studies on age-friendly cities and communities (AFCCs) have been done over the past decade. The large volume literature on AFCCs makes it necessary to figure out key areas and the evolution trends of studies on AFCCs. Therefore, this paper aims to give a comprehensive review on existing literature pertaining to age-friendly communities. A total of 245 collected publications were visualized by CiteSpace. 52 keywords, 17 publications and 7 clusters were identified and grouped as the foundation, hot topic and domain of AFCCs research. Three major themes, namely the concept and features of AFCCs, the experiences of promoting AFCCs, the opportunities and challenges in promoting AFCCs, were also identified. Furthermore, a roadmap of AFCCs research was developed. The findings can be useful references for scholars to have a better understanding of current research on AFCCs and guide future research on AFCCs