Perspectives on the Biodemography of Longevity and Aging

Biodemography is a timely and exciting area of research that has been emerging over the past 15–20 years and might arguably be the most quickly growing area of demography. From the perspective of longevity and aging, questions arise that touch on the biological foundation of aging. With a focus on mortality, this article offers a perspective on recent developments in evolutionary biodemography. These include new theories, methods, and data that have resulted in striking new findings on the diversity of life courses (including the option of escape from aging for some species) that is licensed by nature across the tree of life. As the human life course is rapidly changing due to unimpeded population aging, advances in development of biodemographic theories, methods and databases may prove useful and inspire advances in sociology.