The Brazilian population aging and its contemporary challenges

Abstract

The growth of the elderly population is a world's phenomenon, and in Brazil, the changes are happening in a radical and very accelerated way. The percentage of the Brazilian population over 60 has been growing proportionally according to the demographic data. In 1940, the elderly represented 4% of the population. From then up to 2010 there was a leap of the elderly population from 7% to 11%. Data indicate that in 2020 the elderly population is 30million individuals and that this number will increase to 57 million by 2040! The building of public policies aimed at the elderly population is something very complex due to individual variability in the aging process. Therefore, it is necessary to search for enlightening in this aging dimension diversity context so that the building of health policies for the elderly population becomes more practical. In the public policies it is essential to look at the specificities of the problems in order to reach a better efficiency of the actions. In this regard four factors are highlighted: the regionalizing of the problems (the studies must be carried out in different regions of the country), the social economical level, the age range and genre. A historical of the laws and statutes of the Brazilian elderly security is approached. At last, critics concerning the economic priorities in detriment of the deterioration of the conditions of social protection towards the elderly population are drawn.