Golden years dawning on aging tiger economies

By Johanna Son

MANILA: Long worried by the rapid growth of its young population, a more affluent Asia is today increasingly watchful of its swelling ranks of aging citizens as well.

The world's most developed countries still have the largest proportions of elderly populations. But the rate of population aging in many developing countries is now much faster than those of developed nations in the past, health experts say.

By 2020, more than 70 percent of people aged 60 years and over will be living in developing countries, five of them in Asia. China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan and Bangladesh will be among the 10 countries with the biggest elderly populations in the world by that time.

"The world is now witnessing an extraordinary increase in the numbers and proportion of elderly people everywhere, especially in the newly industrialized countries and developing countries," said Dr. S.T. Han, World Health Organization (WHO) director for the Western Pacific, based in Manila.

Japan is the world's most rapidly aging country, and signs of similar trends are emerging in Asia's graying tiger economies such as South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore.

The Japanese government, which gives a basic pension for citizens 65 years and older, is busy devising ways to cope with growing social security and health problems of its elderly and to ensure not just longevity but quality and productivity of its citizens' later years.

The Japanese today talk not only about "retirement" but about "second life", with many taking up other jobs or going into their own businesses, hobbies or doing volunteer community work.

As the country's elderly population has grown, many Japanese companies have also extended the average length of a working career and moved back retirement age from 55 years two decades ago to 60 years today. Some are considering moving it further to 65 years of age.

Tiny Singapore, a city state of two million people, has also taken note of the elderly trend and stresses the importance of lifelong medical schemes that ensure aging citizens are provided for later on.

In WHO's Western Pacific region, which stretches from East Asia to the Pacific, the percentage of the elderly population is projected to increase from nine percent in 1990 to 16 per cent in 2020.

By that time, nearly 30 percent of Japan's 125 million people will be aged 60 years or over. South Korea's elderly population is expected to grow from 7.5 percent in 1990 to 18.8 percent by 2020.

China, the world's most populous nation with 1.2 billion people, also has the greatest number of elderly. By 2020, China's old population will exceed 230 million -- the current number of elderly in the United States or the whole of Western Europe.

By that time India's elderly folk will number 145 million, Indonesia's 43 million, and Pakistan's 18 million.

The World Population Prospects (1950-2050), a report issued by the United Nations in 1996, gives an idea of how fast societies are graying.

In Western Europe, it took between 50 and 100 years for the number of people aged 65 and older to rise from seven percent to 14 percent of the population.

The same process took only 25 years in Japan, which is predicted to become the world's "oldest" society by 2010. South Korea's elderly will increase from 5.6 percent of the populace in 1995 to 11.45 by 2020.

The proportion of India's elderly is expected to rise from 4.59 to 8.1 percent of the population from 1995 to 2020, and China's from 6.11 to 10.51 percent in the same span of time.

But population aging is far from just an issue of numbers. It means more elderly people are living longer, raising the issue of quality of life and health services.

Governments will have to face the challenges of how to finance health care and social security needs for older citizens, even as urbanization and Westernization in some areas bring about changes in traditional social means of caring for the elderly.

Richer countries have better and more developed social security and health insurance sectors to cope with a growing elderly population. Japanese, for instance, are resorting to hiring extra help to look after elderly people, and promoting their continued employment or "re-employment".

But developing countries still coping with basic problems like maternal mortality and basic child care are unlike to have ready resources to cope with a rise in social security needs. Even their private health and social schemes may prove inadequate.

"In the majority of these countries, due to lack of funds, social security schemes cannot be extended to large segments of populations," the WHO paper said.

Likewise, the presence of a growing elderly population means seeing more illnesses, from cardiovascular diseases to arthritis and problems like loneliness, alienation and integration in society.

"It is not clear whether the elderly are living a longer life of good quality, or just enduring a painful existence," the WHO paper said. "Evidence suggests that the later years of life are often years of living with disabilities."

In short, WHO said: "The emerging social and public health consequences of aging in developing countries must be taken very seriously."

Asian families still consider talking care of the elderly as their responsibility, unlike in the West where having them stay in old-age homes are common. Though some Asian countries like Japan do have publicly-operated residences for senior citizens, many largely stick to the tradition of caring for their old folk.

Studies by the Population Resource Center, based at the University of Michigan in the United States, show this is the case in places like Thailand and the Philippines.

Elderly Thai parents commonly live with at least one child and the practice has persisted, despite the rapid social and economic change of the eighties and the large number of young adults leaving rural villages and flocking to cities.

Elderly Filipinos usually live with children or their other kin, and a common belief is that "putting the elderly in homes for the aged was unnatural if the person had children or other family members", a 1993 study by the Population Resource Center found.

-- IPS