Living longer: the ageing population

By 2040, the world's population aged 60 and over will more than treble to two billion people.

In the next 30 years, for the first time in human history, there will be more people on the planet who are over 60 than those under the age of 15.

The World Today looks at the huge social and economic implications of ageing population.

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What is the recipe for reaching a grand old age?

Producers working in BBC bureaux around the world explain what the prevailing views are in their countries.

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People are certainly living longer, but would it be possible to extend life indefinitely?

Aubrey de Grey is the chair of the SENS Foundation, which studies regenerative medicine solutions to the disabilities and diseases of ageing.

He believes that within just a few decades science could put a stop to ageing altogether.

The World Today's Pascale Harter finds that a horrifying idea, but Aubrey de Grey says we just haven't grasped it yet.

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Can a young person imagine what it actually feels like to be old?

Fifteen-year-old Joanne Foncheka wanted to find out, so she went to speak to 67-year-old Saliem Zakaria, her neighbour in Bandra, a suburb of Mumbai.

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Some older people choose to spend their time getting involved in political activity.

DaneAge is an advocacy association for the over 50s in Denmark.

More than 10% of the Danish population now belong to DaneAge.

The organisation is forcing major political parties to adopt more pro-elderly policies. Its president is Bjarne Hastrup.

Judy Lear is a senior political activist with the Gray Panthers, a pan-generational organisation in the United States which promotes senior citizen rights, and the Granny Peace Brigade, a group of elderly women who campaign against war.

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For some, old age can be a time for winding down and relaxing.

Those who can afford it can travel the world and enjoy the antics of their grandchildren.

However, many elderly people find themselves in poverty, abandoned and ignored not just by their children but by society as a whole.

Sixty-eight-year-old Raphael Karari is a retired teacher from Kenya and Beth Noonan is a housewife from Ireland.

Beth is 76, an age at which she was perhaps expected to be sitting by the fire with a cup of cocoa. So is she doing just that?

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In Africa, many orphans are raised by their grandparents.

In a continent badly affected by HIV and other diseases, households are often headed by older women.

However, the safety net provided by grandparents is stretched very thin.

Older people already make up a significant proportion of the poorest in society and many African governments fail to provide support for such elderly carers, forcing them to continue low paid strenuous jobs.

Jaliah is one such grandmother living in Uganda.

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Japan has the oldest population in the world.

Traditionally, Japan has a culture of respect for the elderly, but times are changing and in some cases the esteem of the younger generation has dwindled.

Some have been left feeling isolated, unwanted and impoverished and as a result crime rates among the older generation are increasing.

Last year more than 31,000 elderly people were convicted of theft.

Dr Jeff Kingston is a professor in modern Japanese history at Temple University in Tokyo.

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As people live longer healthier lives, many are deciding to work into their late 60s, 70s and sometimes beyond.

Some companies have found their customers prefer having friendly older people serving them.

The British hardware shop B and Q is one such employer and one shop assistant in its west London branch is 72-year-old Doreen Adams.

Buster Martin from south London began cleaning vans for Pimlico Plumbers several years after retiring as a market worker.

That in itself is not unusual unless you consider the fact that he is 103.

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Traditionally, in the Sudanese region of Darfur, older people hold positions of respect and they can expect to be well cared for.

But violence and displacement over the years has led to changes in the family unit and older people often find themselves isolated, struggling to cope.

Two such people who live in a refugee camp in western Darfur are Halima Hissein and Mohammed Bargu.

Kuldeep Sagar is a programme officer for HelpAge, an international group which provides aid to older people in refugee camps in Darfur.

He spoke to the BBC's Africa editor, Martin Plaut, from El Geneina refugee camp.

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The University of the Third Age, otherwise known as U3A, is a university with a difference.

There is no campus, you do not work towards a qualification, anyone can teach a class from belly-dancing to playing Bridge, and you have to be retired to take part.

The University of the Third Age was started in France in the 1970s and has now spread around the world from Australia to South Africa.

David Whitty has been to a History of Art U3A meeting in London, to talk to the lecturer Ralph Blumenau and some of his 'students'.

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First broadcast 12-14 August 2009