September 23, 2022

On 23 September 2019, The Straits Times published an article announcing a collaborative effort by the Housing Development Board, People’s Association, Ministry of Health, and National Environment Agency to build a vertical ‘kampung’ for the elderly. This new development will be situated in Yew Tee and is modelled after the Kampung Admiralty Project with residences, retail outlets, a polyclinic, and a dialysis centre located in a mixed-use zone.

The Old-age dependency ratio (ODR) is usually expressed as a percentage indicating the number of elderly dependents per 100 working age people. However, such measures are not flawless.

In ‘Old-age dependency: is it really increasing in aging populations?’ (Applied Economics Letters, 2019), former Associate Professor Tilak Abeysinghe (NUS Economics) modifies the ODR to include retirees’ current and future savings in his calculations. He posits the adjusted ODR reflects the economic dependence of ageing populations more accurately. When the adjusted ODR is applied onto Singapore’s and Japan’s ageing populations, the results predict a more financially resilient elderly population. Moreover, by removing government transfers, the results from countries of different economic health can be compared to assess the economic dependence of the elderly.

Read the article here.