Caring for the elderly and Malta’s national health scheme

Abstract

One of the most significant global developments of this century is the dramatic increase in the number and proportion of aging persons. Demographic trends indicate that in the next few decades the number of the elderly will reach over one billion, with 75 percent living in developing countries. Persons sixty and over today make up about 13 percent of Malta's total population of 358,000 and may reach 23 percent by the first half of the next century. This increase has given rise to greater demand for state provisions, which is reinforced by the spread of modernization, migration, and chang- ing family and kinship support systems.