Recent findings of a United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) study looks into the challenges ahead due to the local aging population. The population over 65 has doubled in the last two decades.
In 2000, 407,000 people were 65 years or older, 4.8% of a population estimated at 10.8 million. By 2020, this number doubled to 816,000 people in that age bracket, 7.5% of the population. The forecast is that the number over 65 years old will reach more than two million by 2050, or 16%.
The median age also grew, going from 22.5 years in 2000 to 28 years in 2020 and is expected to stand at 37.5 years in 2050, revealed the UN agency on the occasion of World Population Day 2022.
Sonia Vásquez, the local representative of UNFPA says the country has time to prepare for the demographic challenge of having more older adults and, therefore, higher levels of dependency. The issue is complicated because many of this population will reach old age dependent on their children or the state.
Vasquez says the study shows another major demographic challenge: the need to invest in the education of young people. UNFPA urges finding programs that keep children and young people in the education system.
The objective is to invest in the formation of human capital and in the establishment of social support structures to reduce inequalities and thus alleviate the high rates of teenage pregnancy and early unions.
The country has the highest adolescent fertility rate in the region, with 100.6 per 1,000; 19.1% of Dominican women between the ages of 15 and 19 say they have been pregnant; it also has one of the highest rates of child marriage, with 12% of girls under the age of 15, according to data from UN agencies.
Vasquez understands a comprehensive sex education plan that provides information and protection to adolescent girls, is needed. Only 32% of the country’s students say they have received any kind of guidance on sex.
He also pointed to the need to make a “provision of contraceptives” for youth, who do not have access to methods to avoid pregnancy in 10.8% of cases, a figure that rises to 27% of people of adolescent age, he explained.
Vásquez highlighted the actions already carried out by the Dominican state in this area, with an annual budget of 1.5 million dollars to distribute different contraceptive methods through a system that also takes into account the evolution of demand by geographical areas.
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Noticias SIN
11 July 2022