It's their country baby, you're just living in it. Credit: Christopher Furlong/Getty
![](https://unherd.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/IlkNRi2e_400x400-96x96.jpg)
A few years ago a friend of mine explained to me that she was spending her Thursday evenings drinking cocktails with nonagenarians.
She worked hard all week, she said, and enjoyed her weekends. She liked spending time with her friends and she was happy with her life in London. But often she would look around her at her fellow commuters, shoppers, drinkers and diners and ask herself: where are all the old people? And that question would trigger unnerving feelings of sadness, guilt and loneliness.
So she did something about it, and signed up to a charity initiative which got young people to go to the local hospice to share drinks, talks and dancing with the geriatric residents.
The lack of contact between young and old is a recognised and serious social problem. And it is closely related to arguments about intergenerational unfairness – indeed the UK think tank the Resolution Foundation has called for “a new generational contract” aimed at giving the young a better deal.
But how can there be a sense of solidarity between generations if there is so little contact between them? And how can there be more contact if the young and the old are living in different places?
Recent research by the Centre for Towns has starkly demonstrated that our cities are getting younger while our towns are getting older. Since 1981 the number of people aged 24 or under living in small towns has decreased by 270,000. And yet there are around 1.3 million more people in small towns aged over 45.
Join the discussion
Join like minded readers that support our journalism by becoming a paid subscriber
To join the discussion in the comments, become a paid subscriber.
Join like minded readers that support our journalism, read unlimited articles and enjoy other subscriber-only benefits.
Subscribe