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The paper investigates the geographical features of demographic ageing using the age of retirement as the main definition for the old age boundary. The study is based on demographic statistics of Rosstat and the UN Population Division. The possible interdependence between population ageing and the implementation of social policies in the field of pension regulation is studied. The hypothesis about the relationship between low levels and a high pace of population ageing for countries of the world and regions of the Russian Federation was tested. A cartographic and statistical analysis of spatial data at the level of regions and municipalities made it possible to identify and describe the main geographical factors of population ageing differentiation. The ‘ethnic’ subjects of the Russian Federation, as well as the Northern regions of new development (autonomous okrugs), where a minimum proportion of the elderly of retirement age is observed, are growing older the most rapidly. At the same time, the echo of social сrises that took place during the 20th century still plays a significant part in the pace of ageing. However, over the course of this century its influence will increasingly weaken. At the local level, ethnic and rural-urban differentiation is becoming a less significant factor of population ageing in comparison with migration: the working-age population continues to concentrate in the largest urbanised areas. The main territories of the “young” population concentration are the administrative centres of Russia’s regions and areas with a high proportion of non-Russian ethnic groups with a high total fertility rate (TFR), as well as some other ‘azonic’ municipalities.