The new social risks that are present in the world today, as well as in Croatia, are defined as risks that people currently face during their lives, and are the result of economic and social changes associated with the transition to a post-industrial society. As a new social risk that poses great challenges to state policies, old-age care is emerging. Therefore, the aim of this thesis is to show in more detail what are the new social risks, what challenges depopulation poses to welfare states, but also what for older people means their quality of life due to demographic change. The central part of the paper is based on the provision of care for the elderly in the Republic of Croatia, the gradual weakening of the family as the primary provider of care and the institutionalization that is increasingly taking the place of the family. Although institutionalization has taken on the role of care for the elderly, deinstitutionalization is being aimed at in Croatia, and non-institutional care services are becoming increasingly important. One of the challenges for Croatia, as well as other European countries, is certainly the provision of long-term and palliative care services for the elderly, which unfortunately, despite their long existence, are still not clearly formalized. The last part of the paper discusses the increasing expenses of public expenditures due to the aging population and the pressures on the health and pension systems.