But by year 2000, a significant increase pushed up the number to 4.59 million. And the most surprising thing about this is that this major change had gone largely unnoticed and unprepared for.

This is one of the major facts of the study "The Low and Slow Ageing in the Philippines: Auspicious or Challenging?" by the University of the Philippines Population Institute 's (UPPI) Dr. Nimfa Ogena, which is included in the book "The Impact of Ageing: A Common Challenge for Europe and Asia."

The book aims at making people think of how this particular change in the population is actually a situation the world should look into.

"The Philippines is still young but we are growing old in terms of our population, which is contrary to what everybody thinks: That we have a very young population," Ogena explains. "We are presenting this scenario to give people time to think and ponder if this is really what we want or not. The older population is increasing much faster than we think. Along with the increase of ageing, the support ratio is going to decline."

The study shows that soon, there will be more old people and that there will be fewer people who will take care of the elderly.

The balance of age groups have changed, the study further cites — from 45.7 percent in 1970, the proportion of the population is down to 37 percent in 2000, an 8.6 percentage point decline over a 30-year period.

With an average annual deployment of 897,000 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), the continuous departure of Filipinos is one of the major factors that contributes to the problem. The slow birth rate of 2.36 percent (1995-2000 census) also aggravates the situation.

"Before, we have the children here who are expected to take care for the elders but since work is scarce in the country, they go abroad. Who will take care of the elders especially for small families?" Ogena laments.

The family system, however, hasn’t really changed, Ogena stresses. The young are still expected to care for their elders. But as changes are being anticipated in view of present conditions, local hospitals are starting to setup geriatric divisions because of the significant increase in the senior citizen population.

"There will come a time when there will be a need for the government to start thinking of ways to provide support to those who are giving services to the elderly because eventually, the situation will get heavy," Ogena adds.

In parallel with Europe

"The Impact of Ageing" is a rare European-Asian interdisciplinary cross section study as world-renowned experts present their riveting findings. The book offers the latest findings and data in demography, economy and society, law and social welfare as well as biomedicine.

The studies have a unique description on both mutuality and divergence in the progress of ageing in European and Asian population trends that will transform the world in fundamental ways by 2050.

"The book was conceived as an interdisciplinary approach to the topic of ageing. We have the demographic aspect, economic aspect, legal aspect and the biomedical aspect. Before, these aspects are being published separately. Now, for the first time, we are bridging the gap," book senior editor Gabriele Sinigoj explains.

Sinigoj is a researcher in global diplomatic history that focuses on the USA, Western Europe, India, Southeast and East Asia from the University of Vienna in Austria. The book is her brainchild.

"This is a first, and we discovered that the issue of ageing is not drastically different between Europe and Asia, they have a common background, target and issues," she relates.

As a compilation of different studies by experts, the book is expected to answer the issues and in time produce results. The book tackles different issues in ageing that are frequently overlooked such as the flourishing ageing tourism industry, caring industry, pension systems, etc.

"Problems like who is going to pay for the pension? How developed is the pension system? What about work forces, do we need more people to work for the elderly? Should the elderly be permitted to work longer in order to give their knowledge to the young?" Sinigoj says.

"In the third world countries, the elderly are bound to the family when the state does not take charge. It’s okay for families that have four to five kids but how about small families? What now?" she ends.