INTRODUCTION

Social definitions of the elderly vary from one society to another. In general, the conventional age set for retirement reflects the social recognition of old age, as well as the socio-economic context of that society. When the socioeconomic attributes of society change, the age limit for retirement is also likely to be affected. In Singapore, the official retirement age limit has been raised from 55 to 62 in 1999, but 55 remains the voluntary retirement age since it coincides with the statutory age for Central Provident Fund withdrawal for retirement. In this chapter, the elderly is defined as one who is 55 years and above. This is also the definition employed by the Singapore government when it conducted the national survey of senior citizens in 1995 (Department of Statistics 1995).

Continuing decline in fertility and mortality rates in the past three decades as well as improvements in health care facilities and services have changed the demography of Singapore from a “pyramid-shape” young, postwar baby-boomers population to a rapidly ageing population. In fact, Singapore has the fifth fastest ageing population in the world, growing at a rate of 3.8 per cent and ranking between that of Hong Kong's (4.6 per cent) and Japan's (2.8 per cent) (Kua 1994; Shantakumar 1994). In the 2000 Census of Population, the elderly aged 60 years and above constituted 10.7 per cent of the population in Singapore. This is projected to increase to about 27 per cent in 2030. In numerical terms, the population of elderly aged 60 years and above in 2000 (348,729) is expected to increase to approximately 898,500 in 2030 (Shantakumar 1994; Department of Statistics 2001). Figure 9.1 shows the projected demographic changes in Singapore from 1990 to 2030. In view of the fact that the elderly will form a significant proportion of Singapore's population, addressing the issues associated with an ageing population has been highlighted as one of the major challenges on the national agenda.