The population of South-East Asia

Abstract

The population of South-East Asia has recently passed the 500 million mark. Although growth is slowing, another 140 million may be added over the 20-year period 1995-2015. The additional population will be concentrated in the working ages and among the elderly. In many countries of the region – for example, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam – there will little or no further growth in the number of children and adolescents. Almost all countries will continue to benefit for some time yet from a decline in dependency ratios that has been in train since the early 1970s. By the mid-1990s, the whole region had progressed three quarters of the way toward replacement fertility in Singapore to continued very high fertility in Lao PDR. A general theory explaining the varied fertility experiences of the different countries remains elusive. Although South-East Asia remains one of the world’s least urbanized regions, urbanization is increasingly rapidly and the region contains some of the world’s largest cities. Because of wide differences between countries in their mortality and fertility transitions, levels of urbanization, systems of governance, and ethnic and cultural background, the key issues facing population policy and approaches to dealing with them remain diverse. Show more