Answers appear below.
From: An Aging World: 2008 U.S. Census Bureau
1. True or false? The world’s children under age 5 outnumber people aged 65 and over.
2. The world’s older population (65 and over) is increasing by approximately how many people each month in
2008?
a. 75,000
b. 350,000
c. 600,000
d. 870,000
3. Which of the world’s developing regions has the highest percentage of older people?
a. Africa
b. Latin America
c. The Caribbean
d. Asia
4. China has the world’s largest total population (more than 1.3 billion). Which country has the world’s largest older population? a. China
b. Germany
c. Russia
d. India
5. True or false? More than half of the world’s older people live in the industrialized nations of Europe, North
America, Japan, and Australia.
6. Which country has the world’s highest percentage of older people in 2008?
a. Sweden
b. Japan
c. Spain
d. Italy
7. True or false? Current demographic projections suggest that 35 percent of all people in the United States will be at least 65 years of age by the year 2050.
8. True or false? The number of the world’s “oldest old” (people 80 and over) is growing more rapidly than the older
(65 and over) population as a whole.
9. Japan has the highest life expectancy among the major countries of the world. How many years can a Japanese baby born in 2008 expect to live, on average?
a. 70 years
b. 75 years
c. 82 years
d. 90 years
10. True or false? Today, average life expectancy at birth is less than 45 years in some countries.
11. What are the leading killers of older people in Europe and North America?
a. Cancers
b. Circulatory diseases
c. Respiratory diseases
d. Accidents

12. True or false? The percentage of older people in rural areas is generally lower than in large cities.
13. There are more older widows than widowers in virtually all countries because:
a. Women live longer than men.
b. Women typically marry men older than themselves.
c. Men are more likely to remarry after divorce or the death of a spouse.
d. All of the above.
14. True or false? Sex ratios at older ages (i.e., the number of older men per 100 older women) usually are 90 or greater. 15. In developed countries, recent increases in labor force participation rates of older workers are due to changing work patterns of:
a. Men
b. Women
c. Men and women
16. What proportion of the world’s countries have a public old-age security program?
a. All
b. Three-fourths
c. One-half
d. One-fourth
17. True or false? In most countries, international migration has little effect on the overall population age structure.
18. In which country are older people least likely to live alone?
a. The Philippines
b. Hungary
c. Canada
d. Denmark
19. True or false? In developing countries, older men are more likely than older women to be illiterate.
20. True or false? In any country, it is almost impossible to have population aging and a decline in total population size at the same time.

Answers
1. True. Although the world’s population is aging, children still outnumber older people as of 2008. Projections indicate, however, that in fewer than 10 years, older people will outnumber children for the first time in history.
2. d. The estimated change in the total size of the world=s older population between July 2007 and July 2008 was more than 10.4 million people, an average of 870,000 each month.
3. c. The Caribbean, with 7.8 percent of all people aged 65 and over in 2008. Corresponding figures for other regions are Latin America, 6.4 percent; Asia (excluding Japan), 6.2 percent; and Africa, 3.3 percent.
4. a. China also has the largest older population, numbering 106 million in 2008.
5. False. Although industrialized nations have higher percentages of older people than do most developing countries, 62 percent of all people aged 65 and over now live in the developing countries of Africa, Asia, Latin
America, the Caribbean, and Oceania.

6. b. Japan, with 22