Population groups
The coming decade will witness an acceleration of population aging, as discussed earlier. The global population aged 60 will increase to 755 million in 2010 and to 1,170 million in 2025. The growth of the population aged 80 and above will be even more rapid, and women will comprise the majority of this group. Worldwide, most of the elderly will be living in urban areas. In developing countries, however, the majority of the elderly will still be residing in rural areas. The roles of the private and public sectors in caring for the elderly, traditionally performed by the family and the local community, will probably have to increase. This support will be particularly needed in rural areas of developing countries due to the rural- to-urban exodus of the young and the consequent "aging" of these areas. Rural development strategies aimed at providing employment opportunities for aging men and women and at strengthening family and community support for the aging, could help to secure the well-being of this large segment of the world's elderly population.
Social expenditures incurred by the aging of populations are high and rising in many industrialized countries. Income security and health care provisions will pose a challenge to public and private sectors well into the next century. Mitigating actions could include efforts to raise national saving and investment rates, collection of higher social welfare contributions from workers and employers, reduction of benefits, and introduction of complementary public and private pension systems.  Flexibility of retirement age may also be considered, but early retirement as a means of opening up employment opportunities for the young— a trend observed in several countries—may aggravate the financial and social problems of the elderly. The provision of more genuine choices for older workers, which is especially needed in some of the developed countries, could help ensure participation of able elderly in the economic and social life of their countries.
The elderly are occupying an increasing proportion of general hospital beds, with wide variations between quality of care and length of stay from country to country and within countries. Unnecessarily long periods and high costs of hospitalization could be reduced by more effective management and the establishment of broader-based community support. Geriatric training and institutions that provide long-term care for the frail,  dependent elderly are inadequate in most countries and urgently need to be improved in anticipation of the rapid expansion of this population group. To contain health care costs and ensure that providing care for the frail elderly is not left unduly to any one sector or group, a broader system of geriatric care is required. Geriatric care should incorporate provisions for acute and chronic illnesses, training, community support, and service delivery. National and local governments, professional and voluntary organizations, the family, and the elderly themselves can collabourate in supporting and delivering the care.
Like the elderly, the young also have special needs. The ages of 15 to 24 are critical, when young people become integrated in their communities as adults. In times of rapid social and economic change, family bonds weaken as traditional values of parents seem less relevant to problems of the young. Employment opportunities are critical for the absorption of the next generation. Where generations of young men and women come to maturity without opportunities to work and make reasonable lives for themselves, a seething pool of discontent invariably forms among energetic and talented young people. A particularly daunting prospect is that the majority of the youth facing limited employment opportunities today will be parents in the year 2025, with only a tenuous hold on the economic ladder.
High unemployment of youth in most developing countries can be tackled effectively only in a context of more vigorous economic growth. At the same time, public and private programmes can be geared towards making youth employable. Suitable training, in and out of school, and provision of initial employment opportunities are essential. In many countries, the past 10 years have been especially difficult for youth employment, as a growing youth cohort coincided with recession, slow economic growth and economic restructuring. Although the youth cohort is already declining and will be considerably smaller in the 2000s, thereby reducing the likely levels of youth unemployment, youth with low skills will have increasing difficulty finding entry-level jobs. In most developing countries, many young people find only a series of casual jobs, often in the informal sector. There is in many countries a serious mismatch between the skills acquired in school and the needs of employers: young people without skills face particularly bleak futures, especially in urban areas.
The most critical needs are faced by rural youth. A general lack of basic amenities in rural areas is combined with few organizations specifically for young people, contradictions between aspirations and traditional values and systems, and often limited access to land. Efforts directed at improving rural conditions in general, with special emphasis on rural youth, can be an important element in slowing down migration to urban areas and providing greater opportunities for youth in general.
Yet another special population is the disabled. The economic as well as human costs of disability are very large. While no single, precise estimate of the number of disabled persons exists, a conservative estimate puts the global number of people in the world suffering from all types of disability at over 500 million. Even relatively minor types of disability are closely associated with the incidence of poverty in many developing countries. Prevention and rehabilitation can yield potentially widespread social and economic benefits.
Despite strained economic circumstances, Governments are making increasing political commitments to the prevention of disability and to rehabilitation and equalization of opportunities for disabled people. These commitments frequently are contained in legislative measures or constitutional clauses. Disability can affect all aspects of life. Policies at all levels aimed at dealing with disability issues should, therefore, be an integral part of the larger efforts aimed at promoting a better life for all. These policies should form an integral part of each country's development efforts and should enhance a society's overall productive capacity.
Financial limitations and the need for trained human resources in dealing with a disability have been identified as the two major obstacles in implementing goals of the World programme of Action Concerning Disabled Persons. With lack of expertise identified as the next greatest obstacle in implementing disability programmes, training and education have been identified by a large proportion of developing and least developed countries as a priority in future technical assistance programmes.
Mental disabilities have a uniquely unfortunate impact on society. In both the developed and developing world, mental illness has reportedly been increasing. Since the mentally ill and mentally retarded are among those receiving the least coverage in vocational training schemes and rehabilitation services, especially in the least developed countries, concerted research efforts, as well as increased provisions of treatment, are urgently called for.
The World programme of Action Concerning Disabled Persons recommends the integration of mentally retarded and other severely disabled children into the general school system. Special attention needs to be drawn to this challenge in the light of the discovery that over 70 per cent of countries at all stages of development in all regions report that school authorities have the discretion to exclude some categories of disabled children from the school system.
The vast majority of the world's disabled persons live under conditions of deprivation, without access to social assistance, especially where infrastructural conditions are rudimentary. The extension of social security on a universal basis would be an important step towards alleviating the problems of disabled persons since, today, such coverage is largely concentrated among developed countries.
Effective community-based rehabilitation requires a network of community services, as well as specialized referral services. Concerted efforts appear to be essential in this area, if a strategy of community-based rehabilitation is to be successful in offering the services required by many disabled people. The integration of disabled people within the community also requires access to public buildings and transportation. While living conditions in largely rural countries may not immediately demand the same measures to improve accessibility required by more urbanized countries, it is nonetheless important that appropriate legislation evolve in view of anticipated needs.
Research capacity on disability is distributed unevenly among countries. Many countries have expressed a need to enhance such research capacity. Accelerating research and saving resources as well may be possible, if increases in national research capacity were accompanied by co-operation through regionally-based disability research institutes.