Example Answer for Question 10 Paper 2: AS Sociology, June 2017 (AQA)

Question 10: Outline [6 marks] - Aging Population

One effect on society of an aging population is the increased dependency ratio. This means that there are fewer young people being born, and yet people are living to an older age. The elderly need to be supported economically once they reach pensionable age.

Another effect on society of an aging population is the pressure on public services. Older people tend to consume a larger than average proportion of services such as health and social care.

Lastly, there will be an increase in one-person pensioner households which already count for around 1/8th of all households. It is often the case that women outlive men, yet lone women are less likely to have a secure pension.

Please Note: These answers have been produced without the knowledge of the mark scheme and merely reflect our attempt at producing an example answer on the day of the exam. Naturally, there are many different possible answers to this questions and students should not worry if their answer is different to ours.  These answers are not approved or endorsed by AQA.