ARI Working Paper Series

The aim of this paper is to provide a brief but comprehensive overview of population trends in Southeast Asia over the past half century, examining the dynamics of mortality, fertility and migration, and emphasizing contrasting national patterns. It shows the way population momentum has carried, and will continue to carry, population growth forward despite replacement level fertility having been almost attained in Southeast Asia. It also deals with the extent to which we understand the drivers of demographic change and their underlying determinants. The paper then assesses projections of population trends up to 2030, in particular the changing age structure, and some policy implications.