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วารสารราชบััณฑิิตยสภา
ปีีที่่� ๔๗ ฉบัับัที่่� ๒ พฤษภาคม–สิิงหาคม ๒๕๖๕
30 แบบรููปเชิิงพื้้�นที่่�ของผูู้�สููงอายุุในปรูะเที่ศไที่ยุ

Abstract: Spatial Patterns of Older People in Thailand
Associate Professor Dr. Pannee Cheewinsiriwat
Associate Fellow of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences,
The Royal Academy of Thailand
In the past, we were concerned about the rapid increase in the world’s
population that might expose in the near future. Consequently, the subsistence
would not be enough for people to survive. However, some countries recently
have experienced a population decline. This is because the number of births

is less than the number of deaths.-causing concern to change direction to the
issue of having a high number of older people in society. Since 2006 Thailand
has entered an aging society, having a population aged 60 years old over 10%
of the total population and tends to have an increasing proportion of older
people continuously. Most of population studies have not included a spatial
perspective in the analysis. This research, therefore, used the Geographic
Information System (GIS) to analyze and present the results in the form of

map series at a provincial level. This revealed the spatial patterns of the aging
society among the provinces. The results showed that clustered provinces in
the northern and central regions that were not border provinces having a large
proportion of older people, and growing faster than other areas. While the
provinces in the upper Northeast including border provinces with Lao People’s
Democratic Republic and the three southern border provinces next to Malaysia
had the lowest proportion of older people, and also had a low rate of change.
It was also found that during the 20-years period from 1997 to 2017, Phuket was
the province with the lowest proportion of older people consistently.

Keywords: aging society, Thailand, spatial pattern, geographic information
system