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The number of women worldwide aged 60 and over is expected to more than double between now and 2025 to 645 million. This means that worldwide the number of older women will be nearly twice the projected total population of the United States, according to a brief released recently by the Commerce Department's Census Bureau.

  The brief, Gender and Aging: Demographic Dimensions, IB/97-3,  which can be accessed at http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/publist.html, marks the first time the Census Bureau has focused on the world's older women.

  "We expect that nearly three-quarters of these women will be living in what is known today as the developing world," said Census Bureau analyst Victoria Velkoff, co-author of the brief with Yvonne Gist. "In developing countries the challenges faced by older women who generally outnumber older men may become increasingly important as their numbers grow."

  Because of faster declines in fertility, developing countries are aging at a much more rapid pace than most developed nations, the authors said. In at least 75 developing countries, the projected increase in the number of older women between 1997 and 2025 exceeds 150 percent, while in many developed countries the increase is less than 50 percent.

  Other highlights from the brief include:

   -        In most developed countries, older women, who currently account for more than 1 in 10 persons, are expected to constitute more than 1 in 7 by 2025. In Italy and Japan, it is projected that 1 of 6 people will be a woman 60 and over.

   -        In almost all countries, life expectancy is higher for women than for men. The average gap between the sexes in developing countries is about three years; in developed countries, it is seven. However, in some developed countries (such as Russia, Estonia and Belarus), women outlive men by more than 10 years.

   -        In most countries, older women are much more likely to be widowed than older men. For example, 58 percent of Indonesia's women, but only 11 percent of its men, age 60 and over are widowed.

   -            Literacy rates for older women run the gamut, from less than 5 percent in Algeria, Ethiopia, Morocco, Nepal and Sudan to more than 90 percent in Argentina, Italy and the United States.

   -            Worldwide, women make up a little more than half of the 60-69 age group, but about two-thirds of those aged 80 or older; these proportions are somewhat higher in developed than in developing countries.

The brief, produced with financial support from the Office of the Demography of Aging at the U.S. National Institute on Aging, uses statistics from the International Database in the Census Bureau's International Programs Center. Three additional briefs on older women worldwide also are planned, covering women's health, care-giving and their economic situation.