Introduction: Population ageing: convergences and uncertainties in the Mediterranean

The steady increase in the number of elderly people in the population, induced by factors that embody human progress (reduced mortality, tendential improvement in living standards and lifestyles, etc.) has become over the years an important issue in the organisation of contemporary societies, as regards retirement or health, for example. With different intensities and with different historical calendars, all societies are concerned by this. However, this same demographic reality ‘in fact means different things depending on the society and on the way its institutions, particularly its welfare system, construct the social definition of the ages and fix, for example, working age and retirement age. Whether it is considered in terms of public policies or experiences, an undeniably important aspect of ageing is its territorial dimension. While present in a number of works, it often remains in the background. This chapter precisely aims to explore the socially differentiated ‘territories’ of ageing in the Mediterranean. For, as it spreads unequally across the Mediterranean area, this process induces a modification of the demographic equilibria among the ages and generations, and also between the sexes.