Nine year countdown to a super aged society

As early as 1993, the proportion of elderly people in Taiwan reached 7%, making it an aging society.
This rate is expected to reach 14% by 2018, when it will become an aged society. By 2025, more than
20% of the population will cross the threshold , making Taiwan a super aged society, where one in
every five people will be elderly.

Between turning from ageing to aged, taiwan only has 25 years, which is a much faster transition
than germany 40 years, the UK 47 years, USA 72 years and france 127 years

Even more surprising is that the transition from aged to super aged is estimated to only take 7 years
in taiwan, which is much faster than europe and US 20 to 50 years, as well as faster than all east
asian countries.

Generally, people aged 65 years of age or older are defined as elderly, and the ratio of the elderly
population to the total population is used as the ageing index

In 45 years, an average of 1,2 young people will need to support every elderly person

About 35 years ago, taiwan’s old age dependency ratio was 6,9%, meaning that every 14,5 young
adults needed to support one elderly person. However, this figure had more than doubled to 16,2%
by 2014, meaning that every 6,2 young adults needed to care for one elderly person. It is estimated
that in 2061, 45 years from now, this will surge to 81,4%, when every 1,2 young adults will need to
bear the weight of one elderly person, such that the ratio will be close to 1:1

The old age dependency ratio refers to the proportion of every 100 adults 15 to 64 years needed to
support the elderly population

Such a trend is closely related to a low birth rate. In 2061, it is expected that the number of young
people under 15 will have reduced by 1,7 million and the number of young and middle aged people
by 8,31 million. On the country, the elderly population will increase by 4,54 million.

Elderly people with disabilities continue to increase in number

In 2015, the number of people with disabilities over the age of 5 in taiwan was 760,000 of which the
elderly accounted for nearly 500,000. By 2031, it is expected that the population with disabilities will
increase to 1,2 million people, of which the elderly 950,000. In 2060, the disabled population will rise
to 1,96 million, of which the elderly will make up 1,8 million, more than 90%.

The proportion of elderly people among those with disabilities is gradually increasing. Although this
indicates increased life expectancy, it does not necessarily mean that people are in good health

The average time spent bed ridden is up to 7 years, while it is only 14 days in nordic countries

In recent years, the life expectancy of the people of taiwan has been increasing annually. In 2015, the
national average was 80,2 years old , with males at 77,01 years old and females at 83,62 years old.

However, the level of health has not kept up. The taiwanese average time bed ridden is up to 7 years,
whereas people in nordic countries spend an average of 2 weeks bed ridden before death. Confined
to bed for an extendend

It is less than 10 years untill a super aged society. Instead of waiting for government help, many
social enterprise pulled their sleeves up to help long ago. They use the concepts of active ageing,
health promotion and more to care for the health of elderly people.