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This chapter assesses Baby Boom retirement prospects, comparing the outlook for this cohort with experiences of previous generations. The impact of aging is assessed using the Social Security's Model of Income in the Near Term and project retirement incomes for a representative group of individuals born between 1926 and 1965. Results indicate that Baby Boomers can expect to have higher real incomes and lower poverty rates in retirement than current retirees. However, the gains in family income are not equally distributed: for instance, never-married Boomer women will be relatively better off while high school Boomer dropouts will be relatively worse off than current retirees. Boomers' post-retirement incomes are not predicted to rise as much as pre-retirement incomes. Additionally, certain population subgroups will remain economically vulnerable, including divorced women, never-married men, Hispanics, high school dropouts, those with weak labor force attachments, and those with the lowest lifetime earnings.

The older population is becoming increasingly diverse. Despite such significant demographic trends, the majority of regional housing strategies and regional spatial strategies barely mention older people, age inequality or age-related social trends. Housing expenditure continues to be focused on new-build family housing or the so-called ‘economically active’ younger age groups, and all too often regeneration is youth-focused, with older people ignored or marginalized. The homes being built do not address population ageing. Another problem encountered is housing inequalities between different sectors of the older population. As a response, emerging and necessary policy measures such as the Lifetime Homes Standards and the concept of the ‘lifetime neighbourhood’ was implemented.

This chapter investigates the older U.S. population trends in forms of assistance with daily activities and disparities in assistance by race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status. Significant disparities in assistance are evident by racial/ethnic and socioeconomic status. The chances of using any help and the chances of using nothing have both declined in relation to the use of assistive technology (AT) alone, the increases in which appear to be widely experienced. Higher levels of education are connected with higher probabilities of using technology independently to carry out daily activities. The chapter shows that, for most groups, increases in AT appear to be offset by decreases both in the use of help and in unassisted difficulty, with declines in the latter twice as large as declines in help.

Japan’s population is 127 million. In 40 years’ time, it is expected to have fallen by a third. That might not have been a big problem for health if it were not for the shifting balance between generations. The over-65s will grow from 26% of the population to nearly 40%. Meanwhile the working age population will shrink at about 1% a year. Supporting Japan’s elderly population is placing a growing financial and physical strain on its younger generations. In this chapter, Mark Britnell analyses the structures in place to increase the number of Japanese healthcare workers, and to keep the national healthcare at its high standard.

In China, the growth of the middle class, lifting so many from poverty, is enabled by the very same urbanization and industrialization that is affecting the physical and mental health of many. From cancer to diabetes, obesity to cardiovascular disease, the chronic diseases of wealth are rising rapidly in China, while the health system is failing to keep up with people’s soaring demand for quality healthcare. But it should not be forgotten how far China has already come—implementing the world’s largest basic healthcare coverage. In this chapter, Mark Britnell discusses whether it can pick up the pace in terms of the reach and depth of care provision, with many patients still incurring significant out-of-pocket expenses. Looking forward, he also analyses the developments needed in China to provide healthcare for the growing older population.