Where Pension-Age People Are (Not) Receiving a Pension

Data from the World Health Organization reveals where few people of retirement age actually receive a pension. This includes many countries in Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia - despite the fact that the latter region is among the fastest-aging in the world.

Among pension-age people, only around 41 percent in Vietnam, 33 percent in Singapore, 21 percent in the Philippines and 15 percent in Indonesia as well as just 6-7 percent in Cambodia and Laos were actually receiving a pension as of the latest available data, which for these countries is 2018-2020. At the same time, Eastern and Southeastern Asia was the third-fastest aging WHO region after Europe/North America and Australia/New Zealand. Southeast Asia alone ranked nine out of 22 behind the aforementioned blocs' subregions as well as Eastern Asia and South America.

Nikkei Asia describes the social safety nets of the region as inadequate despite early retirement ages and said that "demographic bonuses" of the past were running out. Countries in Asia, Africa and the Middle East now have some catching up to do in regards to pensions. The undertaking is an important one, given global demographic developments, so important that adequate pensions have been inscribed as an UN Sustainable Development Goal.

A handful of countries in the world offer universal pensions, covering 100 percent of the population independent of work and family history. This approach is most common in Europe, anglophone nations and fast-aging Eastern Asia, but also stretches into Western and Central Asia. However, the data at hand doesn't say anything about whether the pensions paid are of an adequate level, a problem that applies to all pensions, but that universal and stopgap pensions suffer from in particular.