Challenge of Gerontic Nursing in Indonesia

Medianers ~ Rapid development in the medical world, economics, and science technology to increase life expectancy in Indonesia. It automatically brings the consequence of an increasing number of elderly.

The United Nations estimates that Indonesia as one of the countries with the highest explosion in the number of elderly in the world, more than 400% within a period of 35 years.

In 2025, Indonesia is expected to become the country with a population of elderly people in the world's fifth largest after China, India, United States, and Japan.

Currently, the percentage of elderly people in Indonesia is 8%. With the assumption that Indonesia's population of 230 million people, the elderly population is as much as 18.4 million people.

The percentage increase is the result of each decade. In 2020, an estimated 12% of Indonesia's population aged over 60 years, and the year 2040, this number will increase to 20%.

Within three decades, the proportion of elderly will be greater than the proportion of children under the age of 14 years, a remarkable demographic explosion.(*)