MICRO AND MACRO PERSPECTIVES ON INTERGENERATIONAL RELATIONS AND TRANSFERS IN EUROPE

Parts of Europe have been experiencing the demographic transition for more than a century, and much of the continent has had some time to reflect on the changes and their implications. The contours of the changes are well-known: the 80-year life as “expected”, especially for women, about equal proportions of children and old people in the population, and a near future when individuals aged 60 and over will outnumber children by a ratio of two to one. These changes have reshaped population pyramids, altered the composition of family networks and changed the rhythm of individual lives. Table 1 and figure I show the relative size of older and younger age groups currently and in 2050, based on UN data. As we see in table 1, there are distinct contrasts in age and sex composition in various regions of Europe. By 2050, the East and the West will have the strongest “top-heaviness”. Figures for North America are included for comparison purposes. In this paper, w