It is organized with research along five interconnected work packages with different foci on ageing individuals, families and households under changing demographic regimes in Sweden. It addresses long-term change in relation to ageing at the societal level as well as applying a life-course perspective on ageing as seen from the individual level. The program’s five sub-projects are as follows:

The program has established collaborations with researchers related to another Forte program located at Stockholm University, that of Migrant Trajectories (PI: Bo Malmberg). These collaborations allow us to link migration and ageing research with a focus on the health and life situation of elderly foreign-born people in Sweden.

In short, our programme addresses the shifting dependency threshold and its implications for the burden of care associated with individual and societal ageing. We first examine the dependency threshold itself – the delay of onset and improved survival from disease that not only increases longevity but also raises the age threshold for dependency. Second, we consider the role of work-family balance earlier in life, including the role of policies, for shaping gender inequalities in ageing and dependency in later life. Third, we examine changes in retirement and late-life employment that underlie the economic dependence of the older generation. Fourth, we study changes in family and living arrangements that may exacerbate and/or alleviate dependency in old age. Finally, we conduct micro-simulations based on results from all of these components to predict the composition of future generations in terms of dependency and potential caregivers