Europe is the world region in which the process of population ageing is furthest advanced and all European populations are ageing, although with variations in pace and level. By 2020 a quarter of the population in many European countries will be aged 65 and over and by 2050 it is highly probable that those aged 80 and over will constitute at least one in ten of the population in all the largest European countries, including Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain.

These substantial increases in the representation of older people in European countries, together with changes in patterns of family related behaviour and in living arrangements, have raised concerns among many policy makers that the availability of family support for older people in need of assistance may diminish while the numbers needing such assistance increases. Older people are also providers of support to relatives, both older and younger, and changes in their involvement with this would also have implications on demands for non familial types of support. The future family support of older people is therefore an important issue for policy makers, as well as for society as a whole.

Although ageing is an important issue in all European countries, there is a large degree of variation between (and in some cases, within) European countries in the timing and extent of population ageing, in the relative balance between familial, state and market provision for older people in need of support. There are also considerable differences between populations, and between birth cohorts, in the availability of close family, as well as differences in attitudes to and ideologies about family support. For these reasons Europe presents a scientific opportunity to study determinants and consequences of different patterns and new sources of data are helping a growing cadre of researchers interested in the demography of ageing and specifically in family support systems to make the most of this opportunity.

The importance of the topic both for policy and as an expanding scientific area was reflected in the very positive response we received when we announced this workshop and issued an invitation to submit abstracts. The workshop was organised under the auspices of the EAPs working group on demographic change and the support of older people and Modelling Ageing Populations to 2030 Research Programme, funded under the UK New Dynamics of Ageing programme. MAP2030 kindly provided funds for refreshments and a venue for the meeting at the London School of Economics, but all participants had to fund themselves. Even so, we received far more high quality and relevant abstracts than we expected. We therefore structured the day into a mixture of parallel sessions for three streams (Future projections; Policy and Care, and Family Exchanges and Health ) and plenary sessions with feedback from the various streams and general discussion. A total of 24 papers were presented and over 60 people – from 16 different countries- participated.

We are very grateful to all of those who helped make the event a success. These include all presenters and participants; Guiseppe Gesano and Lynda Clarke who chaired sessions; Giorgio di Gessa, George Ploubidis and Rachel Stuchbury who acted as rapporteurs; the secretariat of EAPs who publicised the meeting and finally, and importantly, colleagues in the MAP2030 programme, including Juliette Malley and Megan Challis who helped with practical arrangements.

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