Elders are the fastest growing segment of the American population. In 1900, average life expectancy was 47 years. In the 1990s this figure stood at 78 years (Satcher 1996). Thus, not only are there both a higher percentage and a greater number of elderly individuals, but they are living longer, thus presenting a unique opportunity and challenge for geographic research. An earlier summary of the geographic literature on aging details several well-developed themes (Golant et al. 1989). These include residential location and migration patterns, activity patterns, and environmental relationships. The same themes persist and have been joined by work in health and service provision. Newer issues appearing in the literature concern the implications of a spatial shift in the elderly population for personal and environmental outcomes, with both the natural and built environments being the objects of study. A notable characteristic of these geographic studies is their broad range of scales from the macro-level (migration) to the micro-level (daily living space). This chapter seeks to highlight representative and influential contributions made by geographers to our understanding of how these demographic and spatial shifts affect the North American scene and how they will continue to impact America in the twenty-first century. It takes a broad, but selective view of current aging research as geographers are just one group of social scientists studying the elderly population and much collaboration and overlap in interests occur. The objective is not to discuss the findings of individual research, but rather to explore the breadth of issues examined by geographers. Several themes will be explored, including demographics and the components of population change, migration patterns, residential location and housing, service and health delivery, and environmental issues of particular relevance to the elderly population. The aging of populations, and the growing number of older individuals, implies that the spatial mobility of the aged will be a growing force shaping societies. The migration patterns of older persons have attracted considerable attention among scholars in a host of disciplines and have continued to be a research focus in geography.
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