INTRODUCTION

It is now widely recognized that the demographic trends of the past decades in many developing countries, including Thailand, are leading to unprecedented increases not only in the absolute numbers of older persons, but also in their relative proportion to the population. At the same time, rapid social and economic changes are underway that are widely assumed to have profound implications for the circumstances under which the future elderly will live. These changes include the decline in the number of children couples have, greater longevity, increased involvement of women (the predominant providers of care) in economic activities outside the home, physical separation of parents and adult children associated with urbanization and age-selective, rural-to-urban migration, and ideational changes, especially the spread of western-style individualism through the mass media and public education. The present chapter is intended as an overview of the situation of ageing population in Thailand, with detailed analyses of ageing policies and programmes.

AGEING SITUATION IN THAILAND

The Asian region has experienced a rapid decline in fertility over the past several decades. The decline has been more rapid in East and Southeast Asia compared with the other regions in the world. The sustained decline in mortality has resulted in a gradual rise in life expectancy at birth with female life expectancy in general showing a higher and faster improvement than that of males.

As we know, fertility transition first took place in East Asia. Most East Asian countries have completed or are nearing completion of the transition from high to low fertility. Japan was the forerunner with fertility already having fallen below replacement level. Japan thus completed its fertility transition well before most other Asian countries had begun their transition. It is very interesting to contrast the different factors that resulted in the fertility transition in the predominantly rural populations of China and the Republic of Korea (Concepcion 1993).