Future of an Ageing Population

5.4 The impact of ageing and ‘verticalisation’ on families,
care and support
Population dynamics relating to ageing – falling fertility, falling mortality
and increased longevity – are also having direct impacts on families. The
shift to a low mortality society leads to an increase in the number of living
generations, a process known as the ‘verticalisation’ of family structures.
The result is that most individuals will spend some time as part of a three
or four-generation family.
Standardised mean age of mother at birth(s) (years)
32
31
30
29
28
27
26
25
24
23
22
21
20
1938 1944 1950 1956 1962 1968 1974 1980 1986 1992 1998 2004 2010
Year
Birth type:
First Births
All births
Figure 5.3: Standardised mean age of mother for England and Wales, for all births (including
first, second, third births etc.) and for first births only, 1938-2013 141 .
The rising mean age of first birth means there will also be longer gaps between
the generations M (see Figure 5.3). This trend is related to increasingly delayed
life course transitions, such as full economic independence from parents,
formal adult union through marriage or committed long-term cohabitation and
purchasing of an independent home. Falling fertility means that ‘verticalisation’
and the delay in life course transitions take place in parallel to a decrease in
the number of living relatives within each generation - a reduction in horizontal
M Increasing longevity and postponed childbearing have opposing effects on the generational structure
of families. Longer lives mean that several generations of family members are more likely be alive at
the same time; delayed childbearing results in a growing age gap between generations, which reduces
the likelihood that multiple generations are alive at the same time. In the UK increases in longevity are
outpacing delays in childbearing, meaning on average more generations will be alive at the same time,
but with longer gaps between the generations.
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