Draft:Ageing Populations in East Asia

Populations in East Asia are aging at an extremely rapid rate. By 2050, nearly 1 in 3 people in East Asia will be ‘aged’, or over the age of 65. Populations in East Asia are aging much more rapidly than those in the rest of the world. By the year 2100 it is projected only 1 in 4 people will be over the age of 65 worldwide, less than the projection for East Asia in 2050. Countries such as Japan, China, and South Korea suffer the most from aging, and all have populations that are aged well above the international average. Some causes of aging populations include low fertility rates and high life expectancy. Japan, for instance, has the longest life expectancy in the world which contributes to having the most aged population in the world. A low fertility rate of births per mother, such as that of .78 in South Korea, means that the population is far below the fertility rate required for natural growth, which is 2.1, and is not creating suitable growth in the numbers of young people. . This causes a lack of replacement in younger populations, making the population demographics shift older and older with time.

Aging can lead to a multitude of problems, such as increased healthcare costs, burden on government services, and problems with the total amount of workers in a country. Healthcare service costs in East Asia are expected to increase dramatically and may cost as much as 20 trillion dollars across the region between 2015 and 2030. Older populations in East Asia also burden young caretakers, who in return have less capital to invest in their own lives. To properly prepare for the aging populations in East Asia, governments need to prepare and maintain developed pension plans and healthcare services. Encouraging immigration could also help to solve the problem of the decreasing numbers of workers, as seen in the US's case where immigration supplements the US’s low fertility rate, causing the population to still increase.

Aging in East Asia will be a critical challenge in the coming years. The issue will affect some of the most powerful countries in the world, and shape the region and its power dynamics. Aging is a prevalent issue, but not one that is unsolvable.