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In “Ragnarok Online” gamers use characters from Norse mythology to wreak havoc. Septuagenarians are not its target audience, but that does not deter Sunanta Phongcharoen. The 72-year-old Thai woman has reached the game’s highest level. This has eased the burdens of old age, she gushes on Manoottangwai, a social-media site for the elderly. By showcasing such stories, its founders claim to be helping prepare Thailand for a demographic crisis.
To understand how bad the problem is, compare Thailand’s transformation with those of countries better known for their greying populations. Between 2002 and 2021 the share of Thailand’s population aged 65 and above increased from 7% to 14%—thresholds that are widely used to define when a society has started “ageing”, and when it has grown “aged”. The same transition took Japan 24 years, America 72 and France 115. And unlike those countries Thailand has grown old before getting rich. Its GDP per person in 2021 was $7,000. When Japan’s population was similarly aged, in 1994, its income level in constant dollars was nearly five times higher.
Thailand’s troubles underline a regional trend of enormous economic and social significance. The Vietnamese are about half as rich as Thais. Their society will probably take only about 17 years to move from “ageing” to “aged”. Even in countries where ageing is taking longer, such as Indonesia (26 years) and the Philippines (37 years), it will happen at much lower levels of income than has been the case for others. South-East Asia as a region will be “aged” by 2042. South Asia will hold out for almost another decade—but with big regional disparities. Sri Lanka, where average incomes were about a third below Thailand’s even before its current economic crisis, is projected...