Ageing societies and physical activity In March 2017, Eurostat, the statistical department of the European Union, released new statistics about the fertility rate in European countries (Eurostat, 2017a). The average fertility rate in EU countries of 1.46 in 2001 rose to 1.58 in 2015, and is expected to continue to rise for the foreseeable future. Despite this development, the population of European countries is still aging. Given Eurostat's compilation of data on the expected demographic change in Europe, most European countries will face a drastic demographic change over the next 45 years (Eurostat, 2017b). Particularly, the proportion of people who are 64 years and older is expected to rise drastically. Apparently, the ageing of populations will only be slightly moderated by migration processes. To explain this by taking the example of Germany: Even though statisticians of the German Federal Statistical Office (Destatis, 2017) expect a continuous net immigration rate of more than 200,000 people per year (what wouldif nothing changestotal up to around 9 Mio. immigrants until 2060), this will only have a slightly hindering effect on the ageing of Germany's society. Given Eurostat's prognoses, all age groups over 64 years in Germany will significantly grow proportionally over the next 40 years, the number of over 100 year olds will even increase from 17,474 in 2015 to 137,541 in 2060 (Eurostat, 2017b). Due to this development, the ratio between young and old will dramatically shift. According to calculations of Olaf Gersemann on the basis of Eurostat's data, for example, the amount of the over 64-year olds in Germany in relation to the 15-64-year-old population will increase from around 32% in 2015 to 55% in 2060 (Gersemann, 2017). The population development in Italy, Spain, and also in more slowly ageing countries such as the UK, will have a similar progression. Considering these numbers, it could be expected that the ageing of societies is a major topic in sociological research. However, while ageing in general and the elderly in particular have been topics of health research for a long time, they are comparably young objects of sociological research. In the sociology of sport and physical activity, research on ageing is still the exception. Since 2004, the European Journal for Sport and Society, for example, has published only a handful of articles that somehow address ageing or the elderly. Most of these articles deal with sport participation, and discuss age as one determinant among many others. Only once has demographic change been the explicit topic of an article; it dealt with the question of whether and 'to what extent sport participation in Germany depends on demographic and economic parameters' (Breuer & Wicker, 2008, 33). The obvious lack of interest of sport sociologists in the demographic change is surprising, at least if one thinks about the potential consequences of demographic ageing. In this regard, it has to be considered that Eurostat's picture about the 'age-burden' of European societies is no...
