Elderly people are not only increasing in number but also increasingly likely to have retired by the age of 65. Together with increasing affluence, owner occupation and mobility, these trends are increasing the volume of elderly migrations, which contrast with working-age migrations in their preference for environmentally attractive areas outside the principal urban-industrial areas. An analysis of the distribution of persons aged 60 years or more by Standard Regions, Subdivisions and local authorities from 1951 to 1971 reveals that the elderly are becoming increasingly concentrated in particular parts of England and Wales, notably in the coastal areas of southern England. Net inter-Regional migration flows are examined, and an attempt is made to indicate migration change of elderly age groups at local authority level. It is concluded that, although areal differences in mortality and age structure are related cross-sectionally to the elderly distribution, recent changes in that distribution must be attributed to elderly migration. Criteria are suggested for defining retirement areas, and a map of such areas in 1971 is presented. THE geography of the elderly has recently received increasing attention, particularly in North America and France., This may be explained partly by the increasing numbers and percentage of elderly people in economically advanced nations. A summary of these changes in England and Wales is presented in Figure i. The distinctive characteristics and problems of aged people have stimulated concern and a wide range of studies in the field of social gerontology.2 To the geographer, however, it is the distinctive spatial behaviour and distribution of elderly people, prompted by their inactive economic status and enabled by increased prosperity and mobility, which stimulates particular interest in this group. In this paper the census evidence on the changing geography of the elderly from 1951 to 1971 in England and Wales is discussed. No single definition of the elderly is satisfactory for all purposes. We are particularly interested in the group who have retired from full-time employment, which is a variable age for individuals and may be anything from 55 upwards. Whilst there are some statistics for the economically inactive, it is not always possible to use them to define the retired, mainly because of the ambiguous status of women. Many studies have therefore relied on age rather than economic status, and used the pensionable ages of 65 for men and 60 for women, to define the elderly or retired.3 However this does exclude many people who retire earlier, and as one study has shown, they are the most likely to migrate at retirement.4 We have therefore decided to take the age of 60 as the lower limit of the elderly in order to include most of this group. THE GROWTH OF RETIREMENT In addition to the growing numbers of elderly persons, which has been predicted to continue until about 1991, the distinctiveness of this group is increasing because during the twentieth 453 This content downloaded from 207.46.13.128 on Tue, 06 Sep 2016 04:34:32 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 454 C. M. LAW AND A. M. WARNES