AGEING IN ASIA AND THE PACIFIC: KEY FACTS

Afghanistan

KEY INDICATORS

Section I: Demographic indicators

1. Key population indicators, 20231

Indicators Value
Population age 60+ (thousands) 1,627
Population aged 60+ (% of total population) 3.9
Percentage of women out of the population aged 60+ 56.3
Percentage of women out of the population aged 80+ 60.8
Life expectancy at birth (years) 64.2
Median age (years) 17.0
Total fertility rate (2023) 4.4

2. Population by age group, selected years1

Thousands
Age 1950 1990 2020 2023 2030 2050
0-14 3,069 5,077 17,073 18,098 20,302 23,205
15-64 4,199 5,377 20,957 23,130 28,702 47,791
60+ 374 411 1,497 1,627 2,159 4,904
65+ 213 240 942 1,012 1,327 3,079
80+ 10 19 105 111 151 372
Total 7,480 10,695 38,972 42,240 50,331 74,075

2. Population by age group, selected years1

Percentage
Age 1950 1990 2020 2023 2030 2050
0-14 41.0 47.5 43.8 42.8 40.3 31.3
15-64 56.1 50.3 53.8 54.8 57.0 64.5
60+ 5.0 3.8 3.8 3.9 4.3 6.6
65+ 2.8 2.2 2.4 2.4 2.6 4.2
80+ 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.5

3. Percentage of total population by age group and sex, selected years1
1990
2020
2030
2050

4. Percentage of male and female population by age, 20231

5. Proportion of the total population by broad age group, 1950-20501

6. Proportion of population aged 80 years or over as percentage of population aged 65 years or over, 1950-20501

7. Median age of the total population, 1950-20501

8. Life expectancy at birth, male and female, 1950-20501

9. Potential old-age support ratio (ages 20-64/age 65+), 1950-20501

10. Speed of ageing (Number of years required or expected for percentage of population aged 65 and over to rise from 7 per cent to 14 per cent)1,2

11. Life expectancy at birth (both sexes), and total fertility rate, 1990-20501

Section II: Employment and social protection

12. Labour force participation rate of people aged 65 years or over, percentage, latest available year3

icon both 27.8 icon male 37.6 icon female 12.9

13. Percentage of older persons covered by social protection systems including floors (SDG 1.3.1), 2020 or latest available year4

14. Legal coverage of contributory mandatory pensions, total, female, male (percentage of working-age population), 2020 or latest available year4

icon both n.a. icon male n.a. icon female n.a.

15. Informal employment rate of 65+ (percentage of informal employment out of total employment in that age group), 20213

icon both 92.6 icon male 92.8 icon female 91.6

Section III: Health

16. Life expectancy (LE) versus healthy life expectancy (HALE) at age 60, both sexes, most recent years5

17. Life expectancy (LE) versus healthy life expectancy (HALE) at age 60, male and female, most recent years5

18. Out-of-pocket health expenditure as percentage of current health expenditure (CHE), latest available years5

19. Suicide rate, per 100,000 population, by sex and age group, latest available year 20195

20. Dementia physician density, per 1,000 population, latest available year5

icon physician 0.2 persons

21. Total expenditure on social protection (excluding health), percentage, 2020 or latest available year4

icon both 1.8

Section IV: Living arrangements

22. Household living arrangements of people aged 65 years or over, latest available years6

23. Literacy rate of older persons age 65 years or over, percentage, latest available year 20187

icon both 13.3
(of 65+ total population) icon male 24.7
(of 65+ male population) icon female 3.5
(of 65+ female population)

24. Internet users, as a percentage of their age group, latest available years8

Source: ESCAP 2022. Ageing in Asia and the Pacific: key facts, available at: https://www.population-trends-asiapacific.org/data

Footnote

  1. United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2022). World Population Prospects 2022, Online Edition.
  2. Kinsella, Kevin and Wan He (2009). “An Aging World: 2008”. International Population Reports, Issued June 2009: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Department of Commerce. Available at https://www.census.gov/prod/2009pubs/p95-09-1.pdf
  3. International Labour Organization, ILOSTAT Data. Available at https://ilostat.ilo.org/data/ (accessed on 3 March 2023).
  4. World Social Protection Data Dashboards. Available at https://www.social-protection.org (accessed on 3 March 2023).
  5. World Health Organization, Global Health Observatory data repository. Available at https://www.who.int/data/gho (accessed on 3 March 2023).
  6. United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2022). Database on the Households and Living Arrangements of Older Persons 2022. Available at https://www.un.org/development/desa/pd/data/living-arrangements-older-persons (accessed on 3 March 2023).
  7. World Bank, Databank. Available at https://databank.worldbank.org/ (accessed on 3 March 2023).
  8. ITU (2022). ITU, Digital Development Dashboard. Available at https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Dashboards/Pages/Digital-Development.aspx (accessed on 20 Februry 2023).