Like most countries around the world, Israel faces the challenge of an aging population. In 2015, 11% of Israel's population was over age 65, and this is expected to grow to approximately 15% by 2035. Moreover, Israel's elderly population is particularly culturally diverse, with over three-quarters of Israel's elderly having been born outside of Israel.
In responding to the needs of its growing elderly population, Israel has some important achievements that should be of great interest to other countries. These include its relatively low rate of institutionalization of the elderly (3.5%), longstanding governmental funding of non-professional home care, an extensive system of day care centers, supportive neighborhoods and strong family support. This collection includes articles about some of these important achievements.
The collection also includes articles about some of the main challenges facing the health and health care of the elderly Israel. These include difficulties in attracting young physicians to geriatric medicine, fragmentation of responsibility for the care of the elderly among several different governmental and non-governmental organizations, insufficient development of palliative care services, and challenges in financing institutional long-term care.
As in all areas covered by IJHPR, many of the empirical studies of developments in Israel are enriched by commentaries by leading international experts which place the Israeli developments in a broader international context.