DEMOGRAPHIC ASPECTS OF THE AGED POPULATION : ETHNIC GROUPS IN SINGAPORE, 1947-1989

Abstract

The history of Singapore, from the time of its foundation until after the Second World War, is essentially one of immigration. It is from this long historical background of immigration of people from differing cultures that a plural society has evolved, characterized by a high degree of ethnic and cultural diversity. The most distinctive features of the present day population of Singapore are its ethnic diversity, gradual decline of natural increase and consequent ageing of the population. Ethnic diversity is symptomatic of fundamental cultural differences clearly demonstrated in the contrasts of language, religion and customs. The purpose of this exercise is to examine some outstanding demographic, economic and social aspects of this diversity among the aged population. This exercise comprises five chapters. The first discusses on the demographics of the overall trends in ageing for the period 1947-1989. It also contains the implications of such a demographic scenario which have negative impacts on the society, especially in terms of its ageing workforce. Several statistical measures which will be studied throughout this exercise are dealt with in the next chapter. The third chapter analyses the ageing differentials in terms of sex ratio, mortality, fertility, ethnic composition and age composition while Chapter IV extends the discussion to the ethnic aged in terms of mortality and the composition of the ethnic age-structure. Demographic measures such as the dependency ratio and index of ageing are used to illustrate the magnitude of ageing. Conventionally, the demographic dependency ratio has included both the economically active and inactive population in its denominator. However, in order to be more accurate in measuring and reflecting the dependency burden in economic terms, there is a necessity to obtain a more comprehensive assessment of the old age dependency burden . In this chapter we shall also make a unprecedented attempt to look into an alternative approach by decomposing the sub-population into the economically active and inactive. The magnitude of the economic dependency burden of the three ethnic groups will then become clear as we will know how many economically active working adults are actually supporting both the passive young and old dependents. The social characteristics of the ethnic aged are discussed in Chapter V. These include the sex-ratio, marital status, employment of the aged and educational attainment of the elderly of the three main ethnic groups in terms of social and economic policies for the specific needs of the aged. The final chapter offers some conclusions.