Hyper-aged Society

A country or region where people aged 65 and over make up more than 21% of the total population. The term distinguishes extreme demographic aging from merely "aging" (7%+) or "aged" (14%+) societies. Japan became the world's first hyper-aged society around 2007 and is widely studied as a bellwether for the accessibility, workforce, and social-inclusion challenges that other nations will face as their populations age. For accessibility practitioners, hyper-aged demographics shift the scope of the field: age-related impairments (vision, hearing, cognition, mobility) become near-universal user needs rather than edge cases.