TRANSITION TO THE NEW DEMOGRAPHY OF DEATH: THE CASE OF SRI LANKA

Abstract

Sri Lanka has observed a transformation of the classic population pyramid as the decline in fertility which affected early life of the new generations while detecting growth of the elderly population because of declining mortality through the middle ages up to the young-old population. Sri Lanka is yet to experience high level later life mortality which will further shape the age pyramid. It is quite certain with the increase of survival chances of the Sri Lankan population, Sri Lankan society will experience a highly mature population in future with a multitude of challenges which we did not encounter during the 20th century. However, it is quite probable to argue that the society will also change and adjust to this maturing demography. However, our experience so far with the ageing population is that we often equate it with an increasing number of proportion of frail who are dependent and burden on society and family. The numbers themselves are a warning that the society needs to change with the changing demography. One of the most important consequences will be the transition to new demography of death. This phenomenon was first discussed by Leeson (2014) with an example drawn from England and Wales. The present paper adds more dimension with some more data drawn from Sri Lanka in order to qualify that Sri Lanka is also moving towards a transition to a new demography of death.