The age of the grandparent has arrived

Supposedly it takes a village to raise a child. But if you haven’t got a village on hand, then a grandparent is the next best thing. For most parents, having grandma or (less likely) grandpa willing to help care for children is a boon. Helpfully, there are more grandparents around than ever before: by our count, 1.5bn of them. Two big demographic trends show their rising importance. First, people are living longer. Since 1960 global life expectancy has risen from 51 to 72 years. Second, families are shrinking, which means the ratio of living grandparents to children is steadily rising. The growing roles of nonna and nonno, or bibi and babu, matter in varied and surprising ways. Have a read of our collection of stories to find out why the age of the grandparent is upon us. Adam Roberts Digital editor The Economist