While the male population 65 and over is expected to increase from its current level of 7,000,000 to 13,000,000 over the next four decades, the proportion of veterans in these totals will increase still further. It is also expected that men aged 65 and over will account for not only an increasing proportion of the total population, but that within this aging group those with veteran status will expand from the present one-fifth to account for nearly two-thirds of the total.

TABLE 3

AGING MALE POPULATION ESTIMATE PROJECTIONS,
TOTAL AND VETERAN, 1960-2000

While it is expected that the growth in the male population 65 and over will be maintained at an increasing rate that changes only moderately from year to year, the veteran portion as previously noted comes into this aging group in wave-like progression. This will cause the age class composition of the veteran group to change in a very different pattern from that of the group as a whole.

The continuation of this development in the movement from one age class to another within the 65 and over veteran group is clearly apparent in the estimates for the next four decades presented in Table 4 and the proportions of the number of veterans in each five-year age class over this period shown in Chart IV.

One effect of the previously mentioned wave-like progression in the annual number of male veterans entering the 65 and over age group of special importance in the future will be the resulting change in its age class composition from time to time. As can be seen in the estimates presented in Table 5 and Chart V, the proportion in the 65 - 69 age classification may vary in the future from, for example, the low of 16 percent in 1970 to 50 percent a decade later.

Viewing the group as a whole, it is clear that in addition to the changes in the number of individuals that can be expected to be in it in the next few decades, the ages of the majority will at different times be higher and lower than at present. This will be reflected in the proportions of the group with employment and in other economic ways as well as in the living requirements to be supplied by the national economy.

TABLE 5

CHANGING AGE CLASS PROPORTIONS OF THE MALE VETERAN POPULATION 65 AND OVER BY DECADES, 1950 - 2000

CHANGING AGE CLASS PROPORTIONS OF THE MALE VETERAN POPULATION 65 AND OVER
By Decades, 1950-2000

FAMILY STATUS OF THE AGING VETERAN

The significance of the incomes of veterans aged 65 and over in terms of the levels of living provided is inter-related with their family status. About three-fourths are married and maintain households with their wives, as is indicated in Table 6. Onethird of the remaining quarter of the group has continued single and the rest have been widowed or in some cases divorced. Thus, the 65 and over veteran group is made up preponderantly of married couples.

TABLE 6

MARITAL STATUS OF MALE VETERANS AND NON-VETERANS AGED 65 AND OVER, 1959

MARITAL STATUS OF AGING MALE VETERANS AND NON-VETERANS,1959

Again, the situation is dynamic, Family status changes with the advancing age of those within the 65 and over veteran group, primarily as a result of increasing widowhood. The proportion of surviving male veterans who are widowed or separated from their wives because hospitalized or for other reasons increases from one-eighth of the total in the age class 65 - 69 to one-third among those 75 and over, as shown in Table 7. Some variations in this pattern appear geographically by regions, between rural and urban areas, and within such areas.

Judging from the available data, it appears that the non-veteran male population 65 and over falls in about the same family status pattern, except for a somewhat higher ratio of those widowed. This latter situation is no doubt accounted for by the larger proportion of non-veteran men currently in the more advanced ages in the 65 and over population where a higher rate of widowhood prevails than is indicated in the case of veterans.

TABLE 7

MARITAL STATUS OF AGING MALE VETERANS
BY AGE CLASSIFICATION, MARCH 1959

Attempts have been made in legislative and administrative provisions of aging veterans' income maintenance programs to take account of the most readily determinable current and changing family status differences. This is indicated later in this study in connection with housing, including institutional, as well as with compensation and pensions.

Family status is changing in nature and in importance to an increasing portion of the aging population 65 and over and is of growing concern to planning for the future by the individuals involved and by business enterprise and government agencies.

GEOGRAPHIC FACTORS AFFECTING AGING VETERANS

The different patterns of living typical of the various regional areas of the United States, and as between urban, suburban and rural locations in the same area, involve wide variations in living costs. An amount of income that is adequate to maintain a generally acceptable social and economic status in one location may be sufficient to support an above-average standard in one place, and fall short of the requirement in another.