Introduction

Abstract

In the past decade, Southeast Asia’s economic and geopolitical profile in the world has risen dramatically. It is one of the fastest growing markets and least well-known regions in the world. Countries in this region are important because they are large in aggregate, strategically located, exceptionally diverse, and intellectually interesting. This book on Demographic and Family Changes in Southeast Asia (SEA) presents the trends and patterns of family changes from all eleven countries in the region for the past 50 years (till 2015). It collects indicators on marriage, fertility, and household structures, and child and youth well-being based on data that are dispersed in many different sources and compiles them in one single document making it easier for researchers, practitioners, and policy-makers who are interested in this diverse and rapidly growing region to refer to. The report is meant to be a resource book to provide a snapshot of changes in the last half a century in key demographic, socio-economic characteristics, and family structure in the region to facilitate an understanding of the transitions that have undergone.

In the past decade, Southeast Asia’s economic and geopolitical profile in the world has risen dramatically. It is one of the fastest growing markets and least well-known regions in the world. Countries in this region are important because they are large in aggregate, strategically located, exceptionally diverse, and intellectually interesting. This book on Demographic and Family Changes in Southeast Asia (SEA) presents the trends and patterns of family changes from all eleven countries in the region for the past 50 years (till 2015). It collects indicators on marriage, fertility, and household structures, and child and youth well-being based on data that are dispersed in many different sources and compiles them in one single document making it easier for researchers, practitioners, and policy-makers who are interested in this diverse and rapidly growing region to refer to. The report is meant to be a resource book to provide a snapshot of changes in the last half a century in key demographic, socio-economic characteristics, and family structure in the region to facilitate an understanding of the transitions that have undergone. These trends and patterns are meant to help readers understand the levels of development and diversity in this region that can shape the future socioeconomic development in this region in the next few decades. The large amount of data presented here precludes in-depth interpretations due to space constraints. References are provided throughout this brief on various topics for readers who are interested in learning greater details to consult with.

A review of the literature on the structure of families in the region shows that contemporary studies on Southeast Asia focus on a handful of themes that focus on individual countries. In the marriage literature, for example, regional studies are done by a few scholars and commonly include Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, or Singapore, with the recent inclusion of Myanmar (Dommaraju & Jones, 2011; Jones, 1997, 2012; Jones & Shen, 2008; Jones & Yeung, 2014; Yeung & Hu, 2018). Brunei, Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Timor-Leste are frequently left out when scholars discuss Southeast Asia. While we acknowledge that issues of data availability in these countries play a big role in their absence in comparative studies, we stress that leaving them out may cause one to miss vital information on Southeast Asia as a whole. Therefore, providing a comprehensive time trend of a set of indicators for all countries within the region is one of the objectives of this book.

In choosing which indicators to include, we drew heavily on major references such as the World Family Map prepared by the Child Trends and Social Trends Institute, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) database indicators. Data used in the figures in this report are sourced from publicly available databases and reports such as the United Nations (UN) Data, Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) International Version 6.4, Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Statistics, World Bank Data, and various countries’ statistical offices.

Such indicators were commonly used in the literature focusing on family and population changes. The choice of indicators to include in this report is mainly based on the availability of comparable data in the past four to five decades that allows a description of time trends. When data are available, a longer time series is presented. Some indicators have longer time series or gave more countries included than others due to the comparability and availability of the data.

This report is structured into two parts. Part A presents changes in demographic and household structures, and Part B presents changes in child and youth well-being. I begin with a brief introduction of the historical and cultural background of Southeast Asia that are crucial for understanding changes in Southeast Asia followed by a briefing on changes in population and socio-economic indicators in the past few decades to help users contextualize the statistics presented here. Subsequently, sections on detailed changes in marriage, fertility, and family structure were presented. The section on marriage includes indicators such as changes in marriage rates, age at marriage, the incidence of singlehood, and divorce. Alternative forms of partnership such as consensual unions or cohabitations which are used interchangeably in this report are also described. The section on fertility trends shows changes in fertility rates (total, age-specific, adolescent) and age at childbearing. Figures on ideal and actual fertility rates and childlessness rates in Southeast Asian countries are also included.

Chapter 5 presents information on trends in household structures in the region by examining changes in household sizes, and incidence of one-person households, single-parent families, as well as extended and composite households. Changes in the living arrangements of the elderly are also discussed.

Part 2 shows changes in child and youth well-being in the region including changes in education level, school enrolment, rate of out-of-school children, and gender parity index of education (Chap. 6), youth unemployment (Chap. 6), and child health which includes the prevalence of low-birthweight babies, overweight and wasting of children under 5, and breastfeeding rates (Chap. 7).

1 Background for Family Transition in Southeast Asia

Southeast South Asia is home to 8.5% of the world’s population, including the world’s fourth most populous countries—Indonesia and 10 other countries—Brunei, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Singapore, and Timor-Leste. Countries in this region have undergone uneven development in the past half a century, providing a unique perspective on the intersection of culture, industrialization, public policies, and globalization in shaping the meaning and functioning of the family system around the world. The evolution of families in Southeast Asia is distinct from that in the neighbouring region of East Asia, where many of the family changes such as fertility and marriage trends have overshot those in Europe and North America in terms of the low fertility and marriage rate (Jones & Yeung, 2014; Raymo et al., 2015; Yeung et al., 2018).

While the fertility rate in East Asia was already below or near replacement level in 1990 and is now at ultra-low levels, it remains above replacement level in most countries in Southeast Asia, with total fertility rates (TFRs) above 2 in most countries and above 3 in several. Moreover, while mean age at marriage has risen in East Asia, with more than one-third of adults remaining single at age 40, the age at marriage in Southeast Asia has changed more modestly—marriage remains nearly universal in some countries. While age at first marriage for females in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan is now close to 30, in Southeast Asia it is substantially younger, remaining close to 20 in a few countries [the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR) and Cambodia]. Southeast Asia has much greater diversity in terms of culture and socio-economic development among countries in this region in contrast to East Asia where a high level of homogeneity is found among countries.

Compared to South Asia, Southeast Asia has a higher socio-economic development level and has experienced more rapid family and demographic changes in the past five decades. Hence, in many ways, Southeast Asia stands between East Asia and South Asia in these transitions.

2 Explaining Global Family Changes

While a detailed discussion of global family change is out of the scope of this resource book, a brief background is provided here to help users contextualize the family and population changes in Southeast Asia in the past half a century. For a more detailed description, see Yeung et al., (2018).

Global research on patterns of change and stability during an era of socio-economic transformation often draws on two theoretical perspectives. The first emphasizes socio-economic development that transforms the structural conditions under which families are formed. This view argues that industrialization, urbanization, and advancement in education will lead families to converge from more diverse forms of large extended rural-based families to smaller, more egalitarian, and far less stable conjugal families, and the total fertility rate is likely to stabilize at about 3 (Goode, 1963; Parsons, 1942). The second perspective emphasizes changes in people’s mindset that transform the notions of how individuals visualize themselves vis-à-vis parents, partners, and children. For example, Lesthaeghe and colleagues have argued that changes in religiosity and secularization in Western countries foster an orientation towards individual growth and gratification, which explains postmodern family behaviour and the prevalence of patterns such as cohabitation, high divorce rates, below-replacement fertility, and non-marital childbearing—what they have labelled the “second demographic transition” (Lesthaeghe & Neels, 2002). This shift of mindset will bring about a stronger emphasis on individual freedom of choice and greater tolerance of diversity in lifestyles. They later hypothesize that such ideational and behavioural changes will spread to other parts of the world (Lesthaeghe, 2010).

In addition to these sweeping factors, when examining family changes in Southeast Asia, it is also important to account for several other moderating factors. While the impact of rapid modernization and related ideational changes are evident, there are also changes—or a lack thereof—that cannot be explained by development and simple ideological changes to increased individualism that can be attributable to historical and cultural factors that have shaped family norms in this region. These factors include the colonial experience of Southeast and South Asian countries, the distinctive nature of kinship patterns and gender inequality in the region, the religious, cultural, and ethnic diversity within and between countries, and different family policies in these countries (see details in Yeung et al., 2018). I briefly mention some of them here.

2.1 Historical Context

All countries in Southeast Asia, except Thailand, were under the control of European colonial powers in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, some from even earlier. The imposition of foreign legal systems and the identification of certain modes of behaviour as more “modern” undoubtedly influenced local customs and practices in relation to family matters, though it met with considerable resistance in some countries, along with more general nationalist resistance to the colonial imposition of modernity. For example, in Indonesia, it took the form of protests against regulating marriage registration and polygamy (Locher-Scholten, 2000).

During the post-colonial period, defining family and its functions have been a significant part of the nation-building effort in many countries in this region, with a focus on reforms in family law such as changing the laws for the minimum age at marriage, regulating divorce and property settlement, and those controlling polygamy. However, the politicization of family law that began during the colonial era persists, making it difficult to implement these reforms, particularly in countries with religious and ethnic diversity. The tension between the Western and Asian cultures can be observed in family policies in countries in this region. In the Philippines, divorce has been made nearly impossible and access to contraception has been hindered because of the influence of Catholicism dating from the Spanish colonial period. In Singapore, the government proclaimed “family as the basic unit of society” as one element of the core national ideology and stressed the moral value of heterosexual two-parent families and extended families as the cultural ideals that have been embodied in the country’s public policies as deliberate protections from the influence of the “Western moral values”.

2.2 Kinship Patterns

The kinship systems are a basic underpinning of all aspects of family formation and functioning, and that the interplay between social and economic changes in the region explains much of what has been happening in this region. The contrasts between Southeast Asian and East Asian kinship systems are stark. Compared to the highly patriarchal kinship system in East Asia, the kinship system in Southeast Asia is predominantly bilateral, that is, more flexible in matters such as inheritance and post-marriage residential arrangement. Matrilocality, the preference for staying with the wife’s parents after the wedding, is clear in most Southeast Asian countries (Bryant, 2002; Guilmoto 2012; Heuveline et al., 2017; Hirschman & Loi, 1996; Zimmer & Kim, 2001). The only exceptions to the bilateral kinship system characterizing most of Southeast Asia are northern Vietnam and the Chinese populations of Singapore and Malaysia, which adhere to a Confucianist system. This bilateral family system may be related to greater gender symmetry in Southeast Asia where females have relatively high autonomy and economic importance in precolonial times (Reid, 1988), and this seems to have persisted in modern times (Booth, 2016). Such kinship system plays a crucial role in the family formation behavior, living arrangements, and caregiving behavior in populations in Southeast Asia.

2.3 Cultural Diversity

Another characteristic pertinent to family changes in Southeast Asia is the vast cultural diversity in terms of religion and ethnicity, which results in a variety of ideals for gender and kinship relations. Several countries in Southeast Asia are predominantly Muslims—Brunei, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Buddhism is the main religion in Lao PDR, Cambodia, Myanmar, and Thailand, while the Philippines is mainly Roman Catholic which prohibits divorce and contraceptives. A majority of the Vietnamese have no religion. Most countries contain more than one religious group, with religious composition particularly mixed in Malaysia and Singapore with Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, and others. Ethnic compositions in many countries are also diverse (Yeung et al., 2018). These ethnic and religious beliefs and practices may affect the family formation behaviour in this region. For example, Islamic families have had much higher divorce rate historically than those of other religion and Buddhists are in general more gender egalitarian than other groups.

3 Changes in Southeast Asian Families

3.1 Changing Marriage Patterns

Southeast Asian countries have historically been characterized by near-universal marriage. Although singlehood rates at ages 30–34 have risen sharply, marriage remains a dominant institution shaping the life course of men and women in most countries although a few countries have rapidly rising singlehood rates. Singapore, for example, currently has the highest proportion of women (about a quarter) who remain single at ages 30–34, followed by Thailand, Brunei, and Myanmar.

The age at marriage has been rising universally. With the age at marriage in this region relatively high to begin with, changes between the 1990s and 2010s have been relatively modest, with the average age at marriage being 22–25 for women and 25–28 for men. Singapore is an exception in this region, with the mean age at marriage being 28 and 30, respectively, for men and women. Divorce rate and cohabitation are relatively low in this region except for a few countries.

3.2 Fertility Trends

The fertility rate started to decline more rapidly in Southeast Asia from the 1970s to the end of the 1990s. There are enormous intercountry variations with the TFR in 2015 ranged from 1.2 in Singapore and 1.5 in Thailand to about 3 each in the Philippines and Lao PDR and 5.6 in Timor-Leste. Due to the high fertility rates in the past few decades, the population in this region is relatively young, and most countries have enjoyed demographic dividends. One distinctive characteristic of Southeast Asia is that they have experienced some of the most rapid fertility declines to replacement-level fertility, or near-replacement-level fertility, ever recorded. Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam fit into this category; Indonesia and Myanmar are not far behind. Singapore’s trajectory, in particular, is similar to East Asian countries.

3.3 Living Arrangements

Southeast Asia is characterized by its predominantly nuclear families. Back in 1990, more than half of the households in Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam were nuclear. Studies have shown that the nuclear family system in Java dates back to at least the nineteenth century and to as early as the fifteenth century in Vietnam (Schroder-Butterfill, 2004; Schroder-Butterfill & Marianti, 2006). In Southeast Asia, the prevalence of extended families has remained stable over time at 20–40% since the 1970s. In several countries—Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, and Vietnam—there has been an increase in the number of extended families in the past decade despite economic growth, which is likely due to the ageing trend. The prevalence of single-parent households remains low in this region. Other family types such as one-person households are on the rise.

4 Socio-economic Contexts and Transformation

To contextualize changes in Southeast Asia, some basic developmental indicators from the past few decades for this region are provided. I will briefly highlight the major patterns and trends before delving into each indicator. In general, Southeast Asia has a socio-economic developmental level that lies between East Asia and South Asia.

To begin with, it is important to understand the change in the demographic landscape of this region. Southeast Asia has approximately 640 million people in 2015, accounting for 8.5% of the world population (World Bank, 2015) spread across 11 countries lying east of the Indian subcontinent and south of China. While the countries in this region share some common historical and cultural features, diversity has always been a feature of the region (Hirschman, 2001). Indonesia has the largest population in Southeast Asia, with 258 million people in 2015, or 41% of the region’s total population. The Philippines and Vietnam follow at around 100 million people each, and Thailand and Myanmar both have over 50 million people each. There are also several small countries such as Brunei, Timor-Leste, and Singapore.

Economic growth and rise in education countries in Southeast Asia have undergone rapid growth over the past few decades, although the growth rates have been variable. Singapore and Brunei are outliers, and they are now among the world’s wealthiest countries. Singapore’s gross domestic product (GDP) per capita (purchasing power parity adjusted, in 2011 international dollars) was approximately $80,000 in 2015, significantly higher than the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development average of $40,000. Singapore’s per-capita GDP has more than doubled in the past two decades, as have those of Malaysia and Thailand, which are currently approximately $25,000 and $15,000, respectively. Indonesia has reached a per-capita income of just over $10,000. The other countries (except Brunei) still have a GDP per capita below $10,000, though they also experienced high growth. This heterogeneity is also reflected in the composition of the respective economies, with agriculture dominating in Myanmar, Cambodia, and Lao PDR, and the manufacturing and service sectors playing important roles in Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, and Malaysia.

A significant phenomenon observed throughout Southeast Asia is the rapid rise in female educational enrolment rates in all countries. Higher tertiary enrolment rates are related to lower fertility and delayed marriage. Singapore and Thailand experienced very rapid growth in female tertiary enrolment rates, from below 5% in 1970 to 94.5% and 57.3%, respectively, in 2015. Their growth exceeded that of the Philippines, which was well ahead of them in 1970, but its rate nonetheless doubled to 40% in 2015. In most other Southeast Asian countries, significant increases were observed in the mid-1990s, but from a significantly lower base, so that in most of these countries, 30% or fewer young adults are currently enrolled in tertiary education.

Gender inequality and labour market opportunities for women in Southeast Asia are characterized by a high, though declining, level of gender inequality in many countries although, in general, Southeast Asian countries have lower gender inequality than those in East Asia and South Asia. Singapore has the lowest level of gender inequality, followed by Malaysia. The trend in the female labour force participation rate (FLFPR) affects the family system significantly. Although we typically expect a U-shaped curve of female employment, with more women employed in agricultural economies, a decline in the FLFPR with economic growth, and then a rise in the FLFPR as services emerge, we do not always see this pattern in this region (Dasgupta & Verick, 2017). Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, and Vietnam have had a persistently high FLFPR of approximately 80% since 1990. Thailand also had a high FLFPR (76%) in 1990, but it has declined to the current level of 63%.

The rapid socio-economic transformations, together with evolving cultural norms and values, have led to changes in family life in Southeast Asia as reflected in fertility, marriage, family structure, and intergenerational relations. The great variations in the levels and trends of these family demographic changes also reflect the cultural, historical background mentioned above and family and related social policies such as the family planning programs and family and social policies in each country. The following sections describe each indicator chosen in this brief.

5 Highlights of the Trends and Patterns

The following are some of the key areas that have gone through significant transformation:

5.1 Population

• The region’s population has expanded to as much as thrice its size in 1970. Five of the Southeast Asian countries are now among the world’s 20 most populous countries with Indonesia taking the lead as the 3th most populous country in the world. The population density in countries such as Singapore, Vietnam, and the Philippines has risen exponentially.

• Life expectancy has risen by 20 years on average in 50 years. Singapore has the highest life expectancy at birth in the region at 82.6 years, while Myanmar has the lowest at 65.9 years.

• Most Southeast Asian countries are starting to age gradually. However, in Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam, the proportion of 65-year-olds and above, as well as the oldest old (aged 80 and above), are rising exponentially. In 2015, the old-age dependency ratio in Singapore and Thailand were 16.1 and 14.6, respectively, higher than the world average of 12.6.

• Conversely, the child dependency ratio in the region has been declining, though the population remains relatively young. The majority of the countries have child dependency ratios that are higher than the world average of 39.7.

5.2 Socio-economic Development

• GDP in the region has grown with varying trajectories across the countries. Singapore has shown substantive growth in terms of GDP per capita increasing from US$30,000 to US$55,237 in the time span of 1998–2017. On the other end of the spectrum, countries like Cambodia and Timor-Leste experienced the lowest rates of GDP per capita during the same period.

• Poverty incidence has generally declined in the region. Significant reductions in poverty levels were seen in Vietnam, Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Thailand where the poverty headcount ratios were cut by about 35–75% within fifteen years. Timor-Leste, on the other hand, experienced increased poverty rates from 36.3% in 2001 to 41.8% in 2014.

• Singapore and Thailand have the largest proportion of highly educated people, with Singapore having around 90% and Thailand with 50% of their population obtaining tertiary education. In contrast, Lao PDR has the least number of people going to the tertiary level with just a 17% enrolment rate in 2015, and Malaysia has seen a decline in tertiary enrolment from 37% in 2010 to 29% in 2015.

• Women’s participation in paid labour has been high in Southeast Asia, but increased engagement of women in paid work was more pronounced in Brunei and Singapore. Meanwhile, the opposite trend was observed in Thailand and Timor-Leste.

5.3 Union Formation and Dissolution

• Marked changes have occurred in the family formation behaviour of the population in Southeast Asia. Comparing with the 1970s, marriage rates seem to have risen in the region except in Timor-Leste. But when comparing with the 1980s and the 1990s, significantly fewer Thais, Singaporeans, and Bruneians are getting married nowadays. On the other hand, more Indonesians and Filipinos are tying the knot.

• Generally, those who get married tend to do so at a later age. Notable exceptions are Indonesia, Vietnam, and Cambodia where the singulated mean ages at marriage (SMAM) have recently gone down. A significantly higher number of women and men in their late 30s are also remaining single particularly in Myanmar, Singapore, and Thailand.

• Available data show divorce rates are increasing in Singapore, Thailand, and Brunei, but decreasing in Indonesia and Vietnam.

• Consensual unions or cohabitations also warrant attention, particularly in the Philippines and Thailand where 20–40% of women 20–24 years old and more than 10% of men 25–29 years old are cohabiting.

5.4 Childbearing

• Generally, fertility rates in the region have significantly declined although the majority (six out of eleven) of the countries still have TFRs that are above or around the fertility replacement level. Interestingly, the majority of the countries also have had a decreasing mean age at childbearing (MAC) which translates to women giving birth at an earlier age. We however see a pattern where those with decreasing MAC are associated with lower GDP countries while higher GDP countries have increasing or little change in MAC. Outliers here are Brunei (high GDP but little change in MAC) and Myanmar (low GDP but increasing MAC).

• Age-specific fertility rates (ASFRs) show that the peak of childbearing for high-fertility countries is from the early to late 20s, and late 20s to early 30s for low-fertility countries. Over the years, fertility rates for women in their 20s and early 30s are lower now compared to the 1970s.

• The incidence of teenage pregnancy as measured by adolescent fertility rates has also gone down for the past 50 years. Exceptions here are Vietnam and the Philippines which manifested recent increases in adolescent fertility rates of around 10% points in the past 14 and 19 years, respectively.

• Childlessness is now higher in Cambodia and Indonesia and has escalated by 16% in Singapore since the 1970s. On the other hand, Thailand and Vietnam have fewer childless women in the same age group.

• Generally, actual fertility rates are higher compared with ideal rates except for Singapore where the reverse pattern was observed.

5.5 Household Structure

• Household sizes have fallen universally at different levels, with Singapore having the smallest households at 3.5 persons per household and Lao PDR the biggest at 5.9 persons per household.

• Nuclear households with children are still the most common type of household in the region although the recent trend shows a decreasing pattern, with only Malaysia moving contrary to this trend. In comparison, the percentage of nuclear households with no children is rising although the numbers remain below 6% for all countries, except for Singapore where figures reached 13.7% in 2010.

• Extended family households remain pervasive in Southeast Asia with most countries having more than 25% of this type of household. In Indonesia and Malaysia, extended households are decreasing but in Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, and Vietnam, the percentages are increasing.

• Single-parent households, which are less than 8% of households in each of the countries, are generally decreasing except in Thailand and the Philippines. This downward trend is similarly observed for composite households which are less common than single-parent households.

• One-person households are gradually rising, despite accounting for around 2% or below of all households in each country. In Singapore, there is an exponential increase in households consisting of those who live alone, from 6% in 1980 to 12.2% in 2010.

5.6 Education

• Most countries have reached full enrolment at the primary level with the rate of out-of-school children of primary school age being below 5%.

• There is a gradual increase of adults aged 25 and above having completed upper secondary since 2000. Among countries having at least upper secondary education in 2014, Singapore has the highest rate at 70%, while Indonesia has less than half the rate at 30%. Cambodia has the lowest rates in the region with below 10% in 2009.

• The rate of the adults above 25 years of age having completed at least tertiary education is much lower, with Singapore having the highest rate of 40% and Indonesia with consistent rates of below 10%.

• Tertiary enrolment rates in the region are generally converging to reach gender parity. Nevertheless, female enrolment rates in tertiary education are consistently higher than that for males in half of the countries in the region, namely Brunei, Malaysia, Myanmar Thailand, and the Philippines.

5.7 Youth Unemployment

• Southeast Asia has the world’s highest youth unemployment rates, and female unemployment is especially high for Indonesia at 21%, and Timor-Leste and the Philippines at 17% in 2015. In comparison, male unemployment does not exceed 10% throughout the 25 years from 1990 to 2015.

5.8 Child Health

• Overweight—The prevalence of overweight children is growing, especially in Thailand and Indonesia having the highest rates of 11% in 2014.

• The prevalence of wasting is high in Timore-Leste, Lao PDR, Cambodia and Indonesia.