This incisive work reviews the salient aspects of the demographic, social, and economic characteristics of the aging of the population of the United States. It deals not only with the past and current aspects of population aging but also emphasizes the future outlook with regard to characteristics of the elderly and relative size and composition of the future older population. The book begins with a retrospective review of the population aging process of the United States throughout the twentieth century and continues with a prospective view of aging through most of the next century....