Thailand has been ranked moderately in 34th position in the Global AgeWatch survey, placing the Kingdom second in Asia behind Japan, but with the population aged over 60 expected to triple in the next 35 years it’s a looming issue that will need to be addressed.
Thailand performed best in the enabling environment domain (12), due to a high satisfaction with older people with public transport (78 percent) and social connectedness (90 percent).
It ranked moderately in the health domain (41), with life expectancy at 60 (21) and healthy life expectancy at 60 (16.7) just above the regional averages (19 and 14.8 respectively).
It also ranked moderately in the income security domain (59) in spite of a high old age poverty rate (28 percent), though it has high pension income coverage for its region (81.7 percent) and GNI per capita above regional average.
Thailand ranked lowest in the capability domain (71), due to low level of educational attainment among older people (11.8 percent) compared with the regional average (30.3 percent).
Perhaps one major concern for Thailand is the current level of 10.8 million aged over 60 – which represented 15.8 percent of the population, is expected to triple to more than 37 percent of the population by the year 2050.
Top of the particular list was Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Germany and Canada, while the survey ranked Afghanistan and Malawi as the worst places in the world to be old.
