"Beanpole Families

Hi: 

A new report, commissioned by HSBC and conducted by the Oxford Institute of Aging covers a number of significant findings in its Future of Retirement Survey. The interviewed 21,000 people from 40 to 79 years of age in 21 mature and transitional countries. They claim it is the largest survey of its kind, and compares the experiences of those approaching retirement. It looks at their expecations and then examines the reality.  I'll be reviewing a few of these key findings over the next few blogs.

But back to the beanpole family. This is how they describe the new realities of families - long-lived four and five generations of people, but with only a few people per generation.  This compares with the past traditions of large families but shorter life spans.  The report stresses that family is still important, but with one-child policies is some countries, dropped birth rates in most of the mature countries for the past several decades and increased health care, the extended family might include eight or nine decades, but only one or a couple of people per generation. This flies in the face of the traditional notion of large extended families.  More tomorrow.

 M.