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A super-aged Singapore: Policy implications for a Smart Nation

According to the United Nations World Population Prospects (UNWPP), Singapore will become a super-aged society in 2026. By then, one in five persons in the country, or 1,258,441, will be aged 65 or above.

By 2026, one in five persons in Singapore, or 1,258,441 people, will be aged 65 or above. TODAY File Photo

By 2026, one in five persons in Singapore, or 1,258,441 people, will be aged 65 or above. TODAY File Photo

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According to the United Nations World Population Prospects (UNWPP), Singapore will become a super-aged society in 2026. By then, one in five persons in the country, or 1,258,441, will be aged 65 or above.

The median age will exceed 44.9 (from only 18.1 in 1965) — meaning that half of the population will be at least 44.9 years old. When Singapore gained independence in 1965, only 2.65 per cent of the population, or 49,757, were aged 65 or above.

But drastic improvements in life expectancy and a sharp fall in the nation’s birth rate have led to rapid population ageing. Between 1965 and 2014, life expectancy jumped by 16.1 years, while the birth rate fell from 29.0 births per 1,000 population to only 9.1. The net result is a fast-ageing population.

Furthermore, this trend is unlikely to be reversed anytime soon as life expectancy is projected to climb even further while the birth rate is expected to continue falling. Belying the country’s Jubilee this year, Singapore is sitting on a demographic time bomb.

Apart from the sheer number of senior citizens in the coming decades, the rate at which Singapore is ageing is also remarkable. From 7 per cent in 1999 to 20 per cent of the population in 2026, Singapore will go from being an ageing to a super-aged society in just 27 years.

Japan, China, Germany and the United States — countries that are also undergoing ageing — took or will take 36, 32, 76 and 86 years to make that transition, respectively. Compared with them, Singapore is not only ageing rapidly, it is doing so at a greater speed. More importantly, it also implies that the country will have less time to prepare itself for the looming “silver tsunami”.

Singapore has always counted on its human capital for national development, but at current fertility and mortality rates, the population will start shrinking as early as 2030 with zero migration. (If normal migration flow is held, the population will begin shrinking in 2047.) To survive the next 50 years, the country needs innovative solutions to defuse this demographic time bomb.

WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS?

The Government will be under pressure to increase spending on elderly care against a backdrop of competing demands for finite public resources. If more of the national budget is allocated to elderly care, less might become available for defence or education, for example. One solution is to shift the fiscal burden to the younger population in the form of higher taxation.

However, this risks intergenerational inequity and even tensions when the political power (in terms of voting number) of the younger population declines vis-a-vis the larger older population. In 1965, the old-age dependency ratio in Singapore was 4.9; by 2026, it is projected to hit 30.1 — for every 100 working age adults, 30.1 will be dependents.

An ageing population will also lead to a reduction in the nation’s military strength. The Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) is made up of mostly male conscripts and the number of 18-year-old males had already peaked in 2012 at 37,619. By 2026, the number of 18-year-old males is expected to fall to only about 32,050 and when the total population starts to shrink in 2047, the number will have fallen to just 29,906 — a reduction of 20.5 per cent from its peak.

A shrinking population also hampers economic growth by reducing the supply of young labour to the economy. As the labour force contracts, national output will fall unless there are significant gains in labour productivity. Consisting of those aged between 25 and 49, the core labour force in Singapore is expected to peak in 2020 at 2,147,231 workers and by 2047, will witness a shortfall of 341,570 workers — a 15.9 per cent drop — from its height. For a country that spends 3 to 5 per cent of its gross domestic product on defence annually, slower economic growth will impact military expenditure, too.

The current measures to care for the aged neither scale very well nor consider the desire of many to age within their own communities. Many of the technologies being deployed under the Smart Nation initiative will help senior citizens to age safely in their own homes while enabling them to receive help from their own support network. Telemedicine — the use of cutting-edge information communication technology and self-administered medical gadgets to provide remote medical diagnosis, treatment and care — will end non-essential visits to the hospital for senior citizens. Meanwhile, autonomous vehicles will enhance their mobility when they do need to travel.

Between 1999 and 2013, Singapore’s health expenditure rose from 2.8 to 4.6 per cent of GDP, according to the World Bank. Much of this increase can be attributed to a contemporaneous twofold jump in the number of people aged 65 or above; however, by leveraging on certain disruptive technologies, future increases in health expenditure can be contained. For instance, a new class of biotech drugs called biosimilars are 20 to 30 per cent cheaper than their biologic counterparts, but just as effective and safe. Already prescribed in Europe and Australia, biosimilars make difficult and expensive treatments more affordable. Together with telemedicine and generic drugs, biosimilars can help to contain rising healthcare spending.

As the population shrinks, it is also vital to ensure that the economy continues to prosper and the SAF’s fighting capability is not compromised. With rapid advances in “deep learning” systems, advanced robotics that can outperform humans in some tasks will soon become a reality. McKinsey Global Institute estimates that by 2025, automatons could produce the output of 110 to 140 million full-time equivalents so it is conceivable that super-smart robots might one day address the shortfall in our population. From being caregivers to labourers to sentries, automatons could well be ubiquitous in the future.

While severe, rapid ageing need not spell the end for Singapore. Indeed, it presents real opportunities, too. Singapore is not the only ageing society in the world — many are. With a global Silver Economy estimated by Merrill Lynch at US$15 trillion (S$20.9 trillion) by 2020, the first-mover advantages and lessons learnt from the application of emerging technology to tackle ageing will be invaluable when Singapore spreads its knowledge. That Singapore experience will be something special in the next 50 years.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Dr Tan Teck Boon is a research fellow at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) at Nanyang Technological University. This commentary was first published in RSIS Commentaries.

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