Population Ageing and the Well-Being of Older Persons in Thailand ...

Section 3: Demographic, Social and Economic Profile
Gender differences in educational attainment decrease
throughout the period covered by the projection. Table
3.3 includes the index of dissimilarity to summarize
the extent of differences in the educational
composition of older men and women during the
period of the projection. The index is equal to half
the sum of the absolute differences in proportions of
men and women at each level of education (using five
categories of education: less than primary, primary,
lower secondary, upper secondary, and at least some
tertiary). The index indicates the minimum
proportion of either sex that would have to be shifted
for the compositions of men and women to be
identical. The consistent decline in the index of
dissimilarity in the educational distributions signifies
decreasing educational inequality between older men
and women as time progresses. Thus although male
advantage is still evident in 2045, it is considerably
reduced compared to the situation in 2000.
Formal education does not necessarily equate with
literacy. Those with only very modest schooling in
the past may lose their ability to read and write while
others who never attended school when they were of
school age may have learned to read and write outside
the formal school system including through special
programmes designed for this purpose. Figure 3.5
indicates the per cent literate among older persons
according to the 2007 Survey of Older Persons in
Thailand. In general the findings parallel those with
respect to educational attainment. Overall just over
three fourths of the population age 60 and above are
able to read and write. This differs sharply however
by age and fairly substantially by gender and area of
residence. Compared to four fifths of older persons
in their 60s who are able to read and write, less than
half of those who are 80 and older can do so. Elderly
men are substantially more likely to be literate than
women and urban elderly are more likely to be
literate than rural elderly.
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