Aging and Family Support in the State of Mexico

Abstract

The present stage in which the Demographic Transition is posture challenges for the future that are essential to consider form now on. One of them refers to the population aging caused by the decline in mortality, coupled with the decrease in fertility. The family plays an undoubtedly role in support for the older population, since age usually brings some deterioration of health and income that becomes them dependent. The social networks can provide supports that are reflected in different ways. However, the increased incorporation of women to labour market, the decline in the number of children women have and the inability of the State in the coverage of needs, put in evidence the weak networks of support they actually have. That’s why it is important to think that there will be fewer family members who can support the satisfaction of needs of the old people, and what we need to do to ensure the well-being and a good quality of life for this group of persons. We pretend to make a diagnosis of the current situation of the 60 years and older population in the State of Mexico, in relation to its family dimension. This aim by obtaining different descriptive variables that show us the situation of this group of population. We will work with data from the 2010 Census of population and housing to estimate the next indicators of the elderly adults: dependency ratio, type of household of residence, number of members per household, and marital situation; this disaggregated by sex.