A seminar on the subject of ageing is to be staged at Chester-le-Street.
The North-East Foresight Seminar on the "age shift" will be held at Lumley Castle Hotel, on Wednesday.
The seminar, which is one of 13 organised around the country, will look at the role of older people as consumers, workers and entrepreneurs.
According to Age Concern and Foresight, a Government body which was set up to look at the consequences of an ageing population, the majority of people in the North-East will be aged over 60 by the year 2030.
Sally Greengross, a member of Foresight's ageing population panel, said: "The implication of the age shift will mean dramatic changes to the way we live, from employment and health care to housing and transport."
She added: "It is important that we prepare for this so that older people will live a better life in the future than they do now."
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