Long Term Care:

A Major Issue for Women

In 2001, women accounted for approximately 58 percent of the population age 60 and older and 70 percent of the population age 85 and older – currently the fastest growing segment of the older population.

Today, the average life expectancy at birth is 79 years for women and 72 years for men. 

Older women are a growing population, and the challenges of aging are often more pronounced among older women. Some of those challenges include economic security, access to community services, and health and long-term care. 

Compared with men, older women are three times more likely to be living alone, spend more years and a larger percentage of their lifetime disabled, are nearly twice as likely to reside in a nursing home, and are more than twice as likely to live in poverty.

Almost three-quarters of all older persons with incomes below the poverty level are women. More than half of elderly widows now living in poverty were not poor before the death of their husbands. Poverty increases with age and is especially prevalent among older women of color and older women who live alone. 

Most older women today will live out their lives as widows dependent on Social Security benefits as their primary source of income, and older women are only about half as likely as older men to be receiving pension income. Those who do receive pensions and retirement benefits, often receive less then men because women traditionally earn less money than men and many take time out from work to bear and raise children. Social

Security benefits are often insufficient leaving women at greater risk of impoverishment throughout their older years. The older they live, the higher is their risk. 

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