AGE STRUCTURE TRANSITION IN ECO COUNTRIES

The Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) is one of the relatively new regional cooperation organizations that have brought together six Asian members of the ex-Soviet Union (Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) with four major countries of the region (Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Turkey). The main aim of this paper is to identify demographic transition and specifically highlight age structure transition and its pattern in the ECO Countries during 1950-2025. According to applied demographic paradigm, this study has measured the changes in age structure by applying the demographic indices such as population size, population growth rate and total fertility rate using a comparative approach. Data are taken from the UN Projection/Estimations in the five years ago which are comparable in terms of demographic experiences of diverse countries over the past half century. This comparative study showed that during 1950-1975 the high fertility rate led to relative increase of population under 15 years and decrease of various indices of ageing. However, all these countries, experienced signs of reduction of fertility over 1980-2010. Hence, with appearance of fertility control in this decade, the share of population under 15 years has reduced gradually, and the share of population aged 15-64 years has increased. Continuation of this trend in future can change the age structure of the population and reduce significantly the population under 15 years and lead the population into ageing. This study showed that six Asian members of the ex-Soviet Union have followed the population age structure of Russia with a rapid population ageing. These results will have implications for population policies in the ECO region.