LIFE

Thailand’s Human Resource Situation: the challenge of an ageing population

Special Publications, Published on 06/06/2016

» In the not-so-distant past, Thailand was known as a young people’s country. In the 1970’s, life expectancy for males was under 60 years, and an extra five years for females, with under 10 per cent of total population aged 60 years or over. At that time, fertility rates approached five live births per adult female. There were plenty of young people to supply Thailand’s growing labour intensive industries, especially textiles and garments, with adequate workforce left in the fields for basic agricultural production.