Rising working age population to benefit economy
Rising working age population to benefit economy
Laos' population is expected to reach up to 10.7 million people by 2050 with most of the increase coming from people of working age.
Population experts and economists predict the growth will deliver a ‘demographic dividend' to benefit national economic development in Laos.
These were part of the key findings of a demographic analysis on population and development that was conducted by the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) with support from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Lao PDR.
The results were released in Vientiane recently at a seminar which put an emphasis on the 8th five-year socio-economic development plan for 2016-20.
The meeting noted that Laos' population would increase substantially regardless of the planning policies adopted but decisions had to take into account the nation's future demographic makeup and aspects of the quality of human resources such as health and education.
Economists warned that while the rising working age population is good for Laos and the country's economy in the next three decades, they stressed that Laos needs to invest more in education and skill development to ensure that young people are employed, contributing to the growth of the national economy.
Population projections for the Lao PDR indicate an increase from 6.2 million in 2010 to between 10.3 to 10.7 million by 2050, an increase of around 4 to 4.5 million, or 65 to 72 percent.
According to the MPI and UNFPA report, these projections were based on when the fertility rate would reach replacement level - a Total Fertility Rate (TFR) of 2.1, which represents the average number of children that would be born to a woman over her lifetime.
This represented a medium projection with fertility rates expected to decline as living standards increase.
However, the findings stressed that future trends in fertility in the country were uncertain but noted that declining trends were already occurring in urban areas.
Other key findings of the population projections highlighted the of the school-age population, which will not be increasing.
Another significant point to note is that the proportion of the elderly – those aged 65+ - in the total population is very small in Laos – the lowest of any Asean country.
Ageing is not an issue yet; the proportion of elderly will only begin to rise after 2020.
Although it will more than double between then and 2050, in that year, the proportion of elderly in Laos will be lower than it is today in Thailand.
Currently Laos has a population of about 6.5 million people but the majority of the population end up being employed in the agriculture sector. Of the total labour force, 71 percent work in the agriculture sector; 8 percent in industry and 20 percent in the service sector.
The information on future population projections and planning issues is timely given the current census taking place across the nation. Officials expect to announce the outcome of the survey next week.
