Marzuki et al.: Aging population trend in the state of Perak, Malaysia. - 1 - AGING POPULATION TREND IN THE STATE OF PERAK, MALAYSIA MARZUKI, A. A.1 – NOR, N. N. F. M.1* – RASHID, S. M. R. A.1 1 School of Distance Education, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia. *Corresponding author e-mail: nikfitri[at]usm.my (Received 27th May 2021; accepted 08th July 2021) Abstract. Malaysia will be one of the old countries by 2030. Aging population occurs when the percentage of the elderly population exceeds the percentage of the young population in an area, state or country. In Malaysia, 6.73 percent of Malaysia's population is comprised of people who are mostly in the age of 65 years and above. However, the year 2020 has shown that the state of Perak has become an old state. The percentage contribution from the population aged 65 years and above is higher in Perak, than Malaysia, with the percentage of 11.9 percent of elderly population in 2020. The main objective in this writing is to analyze the aging trends of the population in Perak and to examine the issues and effects of aging population. This study has used secondary data collection methods, namely data from the Department of Statistics Malaysia (JPM), United Nations and other related articles. Perak has become the third eldely state, after Johor and Selangor in 2020. However, due to this escalation, several issues have arisen such as the needs for financial resources to accommodate the elderly, rising health costs of the elderly and labor shortages. Thus, this situation will cause some serious effects on the national economy and also directly on the individuals. Keywords: senior citizen, trend, aging, Perak, Malaysia Introduction Aging population is an increase in senior citizens aged 60 years and above. A country is called as an “old country” when the population aged 60 years and above has a total of 15 percent of the total population. Meanwhile, simultaneously, the median age of the population in the country increased to the age of 30-years-old. This situation is a global symptom that has happened and will happen to all countries, but at different rates. For example, countries like America, European countries, Asian countries like China, Korea and Singapore have currently become an “old country”. However, Malaysia is still at the stage of a “young country” and in 2030, Malaysia will turn into an “old country” (United Nations, 2019). Globally, there will be a total of 703 million people aged 65 and above in 2019. All countries will experience an increase in the number of older populations in 2019 to 2050. According to United Nations (2019), that in the next three decades, the number of elderly populations around the world is expected to increase in more than twice of the current number to reach over 1.5 billion people by 2050. In addition, the number of people around the world who are 80 years old and above will increase faster than the 60 years old and above. All regions of the world will show an increase in the number of elderly population between 2019 and 2050. The largest growth will occur in East and Southeast Asia, which is an increase from 261 million in 2019 to 573 million in 2050. The fastest growth of the elderly will occur in North Africa and West Asia, from 29 million in 2019 to 96 million in 2050. The second fastest increase is expected in Sub- Saharan Africa, from 32 million people in 2019 to be increased to 101 million people by 2050 in the age group of 65 years and above (United Nations, 2019). Based on the QUANTUM JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES 2(5): 1-9. http://www.qjssh.com © 2021 Quantum Academic Publisher Marzuki et al.: Aging population trend in the state of Perak, Malaysia. - 2 - projections released by the United Nations (2019), shows that the population aged 80 years and above, will increase almost threefold between 2019 to 2050, which is a rise from 143 million people to 426 million people. However, the East and Southeast Asia region is the region with the most elderly population in 2019 at 261 million people. The largest increase is expected to occur in East and Southeast Asia which is in 2019, 261 million elderly people will increase to 573 million elderly people in 2050. By 2050, more than half of the population aged 80 years and above is comprised of population in East and Southeast Asia of 177 million people. For the period 2019 to 2050, nine of the 10 countries with the largest projected total percentage increases for the elderly population were found in East and Southeast Asia. The largest increase is forecast to take place in the Republic of Korea at 23 percent, followed by Singapore at 21 percent and China at 20 percent. Furthermore, Malaysia, which is a developing country, will also experience an increase in its elderly population and will become an older country faster than other developed countries. Next, the elderly population in Malaysia will increase by 7 percent to 14 percent in just 28 years, and this is different from Sweden which takes 112 years to experience the same changes as Malaysia (United Nations, 2019). Malaysia is almost an old country because the total population aged 60 and above in 2017 amounted to 3 million people, which is equivalent to 9.3 percent. According to the UN, by 2030, Malaysia will be an old country when 15 percent of its total population consists of people aged 60 and above. In Malaysia, 6.73% of Malaysia's population is aged 65 and above and for the state of Perak, the percentage contribution of the population aged 65 and above is higher than Malaysia with the percentage of 11.01% in 2020 (Department of Statistics Malaysia, 2020). Literature review Southeast Asia has 11 countries and all of them have undergone population changes since the 1960s. Population change in Southeast Asia is occurring at a rapid rate from the baby boom to the elderly boom (Ananta and Arifin, 2009). By 2050, countries in Southeast Asia will experience the problem of aging population except Laos and Cambodia only (United Nations, 2019). Malaysia as a developing country in Southeast Asia is also experiencing an increase in aging population. According to the WHO (2015), in Malaysia in 2010 there were a total of 7.2 million people which is 8.3 percent of the population in the age group of 60 years and above will increase to a total of 7.9 million people which is 20.8 percent of the total elderly population in 2050. According to the WHO (2015), this increase in the elderly population is due to a drastic decline in fertility rates especially for ethnic Chinese. Another factor in the decline in fertility rates is because many women prefer to postpone marriage or get married at a late age because they focus on building a career, this situation will cause them to be less fertile because according to studies women's fertility levels only reach the age of 40 years only (Mohamed and Rostam, 2012). This decline in fertility rates has resulted in the fertility rate in Malaysia being at a low level of 1.8 children per reproductive woman. In addition, according to Lee et.al (2018) increase in population in Malaysia due to declining infant and child mortality, better nutritional system, better education, better medical care, use of family planning and increased personal life expectancy. The increase in the number of senior citizens is also a result of the active development of the socio-economic field, namely the increase in the level of education, QUANTUM JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES 2(5): 1-9. http://www.qjssh.com © 2021 Quantum Academic Publisher Marzuki et al.: Aging population trend in the state of Perak, Malaysia. - 3 - the improvement of health standards and the expansion of women's participation in the workforce (Waldron, 2007). Next, according to Ismail et al. (2017), changes socio-economic development, higher education levels and participation of women in labor is the cause of the postponement of marriage, and found that the age of first marriage of Chinese in Malaysia were higher than the Malays and Indians. The level of education is an important factor, which is the starting point of women’s participation in employment and the number of children they have. According to the study of Alavi et al. (2015), a woman’s age at marriage is an important factor influencing fertility rates and number of births, because the slower a woman gets married, the lower her fertility rate. The declining fertility rate in Malaysia is affecting the family institution. It is due to the practice of postponing marriage, reducing mortality and increasing individual life expectancy. Finally, according to data from the Prime Minister Department (2014), the total elderly population aged 60 and over shows that from 1970 to 2010, the percentage of female seniors continued to increase higher than the percentage of male seniors. A study by Khoo et al. (2008) showed that a study on the health status of men and women in the Klang Valley showed that most of the 351 men diagnosed (over the age of 50) had an unhealthy lifestyle, i.e. 41.9% of smokers and 43.3% of alcoholics, 57.3% of people who lack exercise and 78.7% of people who are obese. The study also found that many men suffer from health conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, prostate and hearing loss.