Social Development

The Asia-Pacific region is currently home to about 60 per cent of the world’s population of older persons, defined as people at 60 years or older. The region is experiencing population ageing at an unprecedented pace, due to rapidly falling fertility rates and tremendous improvements in life expectancy. The number of older persons in the region is expected to more than double from 547 million in 2016 to nearly 1.3 billion by 2050. By then, one in four people in the region are expected to be over 60 years old. It is also projected that the proportion of the “oldest-old”, those above 80 years of age, will increase and constitute one fifth of the older population in the region by 2050. Due to the longer life expectancy for women, the majority of older persons are women with their proportion increasing with age: among the population older than 80, 63 per cent are women. In 2017, ESCAP is working towards the completion of the Third Regional Review of the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing - click here to learn more!

One in every six persons in Asia and the Pacific has some form of disability. This amounts to 650 million men, women and children. The number is expected to rise over the next decades due to population ageing, natural disasters, chronic health conditions, road traffic injuries, poor working conditions and other factors. Despite the constant increase in their number, persons with disabilities tend to be unseen, unheard and uncounted. Research shows that in some countries, if persons with disabilities were paid on an equal basis with their peers without disabilities, the GDP of these countries could increase by one to seven per cent. However, they are often excluded from access to education, employment, social protection services and legal support systems, and are subject to disproportionately high rates of poverty. They continue to face both barriers in their participation as equal members of society and violations of their human rights.

When guaranteed through equal opportunity, choice and access to resources, women’s full participation in society and the economy multiplies the capacity of all for sustainable economic growth and social development.

The HIV epidemic in Asia and the Pacific continues to outpace the response. New infections are primarily concentrated in urban centres and among key populations at higher risk of HIV exposure - sex workers, people who inject drugs, men who have sex with men (MSM), young people, transgender people, migrants and prisoners. Individuals from these groups face legal and policy barriers that impede their access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support and drive stigma and discrimination.

Despite high and enduring economic growth and significant progress in terms of poverty eradication, inequality persists in the Asia-Pacific region, and in some instances has intensified. Growing disparities in income and wealth, as well as unequal opportunities, reinforce each other creating an “inequality trap” that disproportionately affects women and the most vulnerable members of society, including the poor, youth, persons with disabilities, older persons and migrants.

In 2015, there were over 60 million migrants in countries of the ESCAP region, and over 98 million migrants from ESCAP countries living outside their countries of birth, 40 per cent of all migrants in the world. These figures include labour migrants, refugees, and students engaging in temporary or permanent migration, both within the region and beyond.

ESCAP’s focus on population dynamics reflects the changing landscape of the region. Asia-Pacific, with over 4.5 billion people in 2016, is home to nearly 60 per cent of the world’s population. It is a diverse region, with seven of the world’s ten most populous countries, and also some of the world’s smallest island nations in the Pacific.

In Asia and the Pacific, there are 717 million young people aged 15 to 24, comprising 60 per cent of the world’s youth. Across the region large numbers of them have benefitted from social and economic development. Youth unemployment remains the lowest among all regions of the world, at 11 per cent. Between 2003 and 2013, secondary and tertiary education gross enrolment rates increased from 59 to 77 and 18 to 30 per cent respectively.