Today over 45 million Americans are age 65 or older, and the growth of the older population will accelerate sharply as the baby boom generation enters old age. It will become increasingly important to understand the effects of an aging population on families, health care, the economy, and society more generally.
CEDA was formed over 30 years ago in response to the growing demand from government agencies, Congress, and academic researchers for timely, accessible, and practical information as well as basic research. As one of twelve centers established by the National Institute on Aging nationwide, CEDA forms part of the national infrastructure for developing the relatively new field of the economics and demography of aging. CEDA is comprised of more than 40 faculty fellows including a group of outstanding demographers complemented by population researchers in related disciplines at Berkeley and partner institutions.
CEDA supports cutting edge discovery and dissemination of knowledge on the demography of aging. We do this by:
- Supporting new research initiatives through funding for pilot projects
- Providing infrastructural support for programming, computing and data access
- Facilitating and encouraging interactions among CEDA members from diverse departments and disciplines
- Encouraging innovation and creativity by providing resources to pursue ideas while they are fresh
- Organizing conferences on the economics and demography of aging
- Supporting junior faculty development
- Disseminating research findings to government agencies, the public, and the research community
CEDA also co-sponsors a weekly series of brown bag talks in demography, and hosts occasional research conferences and workshops on the Berkeley campus. These serve the dual functions of disseminating research findings by local and visiting researchers and training the younger generation of demographers.
CEDA is supported by a P30 Research Center grant (5P30AG012839) from the National Institute on Aging (NIA).