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NEW - Added May 19, 2007
» The Greying Planet: Projected Global Ageing 2002-2050 • www.greying-planet.com • 2007
Depicted is the worldwide increasing percentage of persons aged 60 years or older over the next four decades (compiled from data of the U.N. report cited below): According to the U.N. projection, more than 30 percent of the population on the northern hemisphere will be aged 60 years old or older in the year 2050.
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» Population Ageing, 2002 (U.N.) 
• 2002
The number of persons aged 60 years or older is estimated to be 629 million in 2002 and is projected to grow to almost 2 billion by 2050, at which time the population of older persons will be larger than the population of children (0-14 years) for the first time in human history. The majority of the world’s older persons reside in Asia (54 per cent), while Europe has the next largest share (24 per cent).
Countries with the highest percentage of persons aged 60 years or older in 2002 were Italy (24.5%), Japan (24.2%), Germany (24.0%), and Greece (23.9%) as depicted below.
Read more: http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/ageing/Graph.pdf
Enlarged Detail - Population aged 60 years or older in 2002, by country (per cent of total population):
» World Population Ageing 1950-2050 • 2002
Chapter II. MAGNITUDE AND SPEED OF POPULATION AGEING (pp. 11-13)
Population Division, DESA, United Nations
"In the period 1950-1955, the global average annual rate of increase in the number of persons aged 60 years or over was only slightly higher than the rate for the total population (both around 1.8 per cent).
Currently, the growth rate of the older population (1.9 per cent) is significantly higher than that of the total population (1.2 per cent). In the near future, the difference between the two rates is expected to become even larger as the baby boom generation starts reaching older ages in several parts of the world. By 2025-2030, projections indicate that the population over 60 will be growing 3.5 times as rapidly as the total population (2.8 per cent compared to 0.8 per cent). Even though the growth rate of the 60 or over age group is expected to decline to 1.6 per cent in 2045-2050, it still will be more than 3 times the growth rate of the total population (0.5 per cent) by the end of the second quarter of this century."