In 2025, more than 21 percent of South Korea’s population was aged 65 and above, placing the country firmly in the United Nations’ “super-aged society” category.
The demographic shift has intensified pressures on healthcare services, social support systems and family caregivers. Malaysia may not be there yet, but it is moving in the same direction.
Having crossed the threshold of an ageing society in 2020, Malaysia is projected to become an aged society by 2044 and a super-aged society by 2056, as pointed out by the World Bank.
The real question is not whether Malaysia is ageing, but whether its institutions, workforce and laws are evolving quickly enough to meet the challenge.
An ageing population demands far more than...