Residential strategies to tackle population ageing in Spain

Prosppects for the 21st century

Abstract

Spain is currently one of the countries with the most ageing population in the world. In socio-demographic terms, we have become part of what is known as an ageing Europe. Our high life expectancy and falling birth rate have led us to this scenario, without any prospect of this trend changing in the short term. The relatively short time in which this take-off has taken place means that we now have to undertake intensive planning to correct specific social imbalances. Among the problems identified, the difficulties in the adaptation of housing for the elderly stand out, which will imply a commitment to effective residential strategies.       

The aim of this paper is to address the main needs and social problems in the field of housing for the elderly in Spain, as well as the main residential strategies that are emerging to address these circumstances. The aim is to compile the main contributions of the literature on these issues, thus generating a tool that will allow us to support the subsequent methodological suggestions to be applied within the Project “Proposals and innovative parameters of Compliance applied to home automation and accreditation of the adequacy of homes for the elderly in Andalusia”, referred below. The article, therefore, concludes by synthesising the theoretical foundations that such antecedents place as pillars and drivers of the rest of the project's actions, as well as the indication of the research techniques to be applied in the following stages.