Before discussing the nature and functions of old age, which chiefly concern us in this volume, we must in a brief, summary way answer two preliminary questions: (1) how many old people are there in the registration areas of the world to-day as compared to earlier times and to the total population; and (2) what is done for them publicly and privately. Each of these topics has a copious literature and experts of its own. On the first or statistical problem there is still great diversity of methods and results, which I simply present and make no attempt to harmonize, for this would be premature. As to the second point, of care, I have also attempted only a bird’s-eye view and avoided details. I The population between the ages of 65 and 74 in various countries (1900)[114] is as follows: United Kingdom--1,418,000 (including England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, of which England and Wales have 1,076,000; Scotland, 151,000; Ireland, 191,000); Germany--2,003,000; Prussia--1,185,000; France--2,246,000; Italy--1,435,000; United States--2,186,000. The percentage of the population 65 and upwards in various countries is: United Kingdom--5 per cent (in England, Wales, and Scotland the percentage is 5 per cent, and in Ireland 6 per cent); Germany--5 per cent; France--8 per cent; Italy--6 per cent; United States--4 per cent. Allyn A. Young[115] gives a table bringing out the following facts, taking the population of continental United States in 1900 as 75,994,575 as a basis: +----+--------------------------------------------------+ | | POPULATION | |Age |--------------+---------------+---------+---------+ | | Native White | Foreign White | Colored | Total | +----+--------------|---------------+---------+---------+ | 70 | 123,818 | 66,941 | 18,213 | 208,972 | | 75 | 79,214 | 40,886 | 10,061 | 130,161 | | 80 | 42,095 | 19,559 | 6,995 | 68,649 | | 85 | 17,271 | 7,059 | 2,854 | 27,184 | | 90 | 4,551 | 1,796 | 1,190 | 7,539 | | 95 | 833 | 430 | 766 | 2,029 | | 99 | 195 | 168 | 255 | 618 | +----+--------------+---------------+---------+---------+ Solomon S. Huebner[116] says a mortality table is a picture of a generation of individuals passing through time. He takes a group of them and traces their history year by year until all have died. The American Experience tables, almost exclusively used for computation by the old insurance companies, contain the following and are based on 100,000 individuals: AMERICAN EXPERIENCE TABLE OF MORTALITY