EVOLUTION AND DETERMINING FACTORS OF THE DEMOGRAPHIC AGEING PROCESS

The latest demographic developments in the European Union (EU) show a growing population, approaching 450 million inhabitants, while the age structure is becoming increasingly older as the post-war baby boom generation reaches retirement age. People are living longer as life expectancy continues to rise, while fertility has been systematically declining over the past 50 years, with slight recovery trends over the past 10 years. However, the fertility rate remains well below the replacement level that would allow the population to remain at a constant size in the absence of internal or external migration. As a result of these demographic developments, the EU will face, in the coming decades, a series of challenges closely related to the aging society that will affect a wide range of areas, including the labor market, the pension system and social-medical care, social services and the residential sector. The creation of an organizational framework that will stimulate the substantiation of development options (of localities), systematization and ecological protection, private initiative, ensuring a decent standard of living through economic and social protection measures must start from knowing the population of each country. Viable, economic and administrative measures cannot be conceived without information on the structure and size of the population by age and sex, occupations and level of education, the current size and probable evolution of the total population.