Family Support for Older Persons in Thailand: Challenges and Opportunities

This was clearly indicated by the adoption of the Second National Plan for Older Persons covering 2002-2021, the prominence of aging issues in the 2012-16 National Economic and Social Development Plan, and a 2015 establishment of the Department of Older Persons with expanded authority to carry out programs to support elderly Thais. [...] Rapid projected population aging: The UN population projections for Thailand show that the future growth of both the number of older persons and their share of the total population are likely to be extensive in the next three and a half decades. [...] The UN projections also indicate that in just a few years from now the share of the population that constitutes older persons will exceed that of children under the age of 15 for the first time in Thai history. [...] In over three fourths of the cases, one or both grandparents are the main persons taking care of the grandchild but in only less than a fifth of the cases are the grandparents the primary providers of financial support for the grandchild. [...] According to the top panel of Figure 7, in essentially 90% of the cases where the grandchild in question is age 10 or younger and in just over 80% of the cases where the child is age 11 to 15, the grandparents are mainly responsible for providing care.