A new study by Economics professors Teegawende Zeida and Tomson Ogwang, together with Germano Mwabu of the University of Nairobi, offers a new way to measure and compare population aging.

Published in the Journal of Population Economics in June 2026, the research introduces a family of measures that capture not only how many people are considered old, but also how far beyond the aging threshold they are and how aging varies within the older population.

The authors also develop a new graphical tool that allows researchers and policymakers to compare patterns of aging across countries, population groups and over time.

Read the full paper here.