NESDC report an eye-opener on Thailand’s ageing population
April 13 is Songkran Day and also National Elderly Day, marked by the Songkran Festival celebrations, the traditional new year of Thais, when family members gather and pay their respects to the elders by sprinkling water on their hands while seniors give them blessing.
As Thailand moves towards a full-scale ageing society, The Nation brings you interesting findings and statistics about senior citizens in Thailand from a report of the National Economic and Social Development Council (NESDC), published in January this year.
The NESDC report revealed that as of January 2024, 13.2 million Thai citizens were aged over 60, or about 20% of the entire population.
In 2019, the percentage of senior citizens and children were about the same — 17% each of the population. Based on current trends, the council estimates that by 2037 the percentage of children would drop to 14.3% while seniors will make up for 29.85% of Thai population.
From its survey on people’s saving habits, the NESDC found that most Thais face financial instability after retirement, and that most seniors were among the financially vulnerable groups.
Only 17.8% of Thais were able to achieve their savings targets (down from 18.6% in 2018), while only 2.4 million people were members of the National Saving Fund.
The OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) had said in 2018 that Thailand had a replacement rate of only 37.5%, significantly lower than the OECD’s average of 52%. Replacement rate refers to the percentage of an individual's annual employment income that is replaced by retirement income when they retire.
The NESDC reported that in 2021, about one-third of seniors under 60 were still working: 64.8% were in the agricultural sector, while 18.8% were helping family businesses and did not earn any wages.
The earnings of 34% of seniors were below the poverty line. Their main sources of income were from working (32.4%), children and families (32.2%), and government benefits (19.2%).
Around 41.4% of seniors have less than 50,000 baht in savings, and 78.3% earn less than 100,000 baht per year.
The NESDC estimated that it would take around 4.3 million baht of savings to live from 60 to 100 years old in the city. Living in rural areas will be significantly cheaper, at approximately 2.8 million baht.
From the health viewpoint, seniors over 60 were experiencing physical limitations in working/daily activities, such as long distance walk (300 metres) and lifting objects more than 5kg in weight. These limitations were found in 24% of males and 41% in females.
In 2019, about 628,800 seniors were suffering from dementia (186,040 males and 442,760 females). In the same year, the NESDC also found that 49.8% of seniors were living with spouses, 25.8% with cross-generation family, and 23.2% were living alone.
The NESDC urged the government to increase the scope and intensity of its plan to prepare Thailand for a full-scale ageing society, especially in benefits and healthcare for senior citizens.
