INTERACTIVE: Meet Malaysia’s ‘oldest’ sub-district

PETALING JAYA: In an ageing Malaysia, Perak’s Mukim Hulu Kinta is ground zero.

Located in Ipoh, it is home to the biggest population of older persons among all sub-districts in the country.

According to recently released data from MyCensus 2020, Mukim Hulu Kinta – a subdivision of Kinta district – has 62,193 residents aged 65 years and above.

Mukim Hulu Kinta’s population of seniors is nearly equal to the entire population of Bandar Melaka, which has 62,175 persons.

The sub-district with the second biggest population of seniors is Bandar Petaling Jaya.

Part of Petaling district in Selangor, 38,336 of Bandar Petaling Jaya’s residents are older persons.

In third place is Mukim Pulai in Johor Baru with an older person population of 32,818.

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The following shows Sarawak districts and sub-districts with the biggest population of seniors aged 65 years and above.

The following shows Sabah districts and sub-districts with the biggest population of seniors aged 65 years and above.

The following is a map showing the top 10 districts and sub-districts with the biggest population of seniors aged 65 years and above.

Malaysian Research Institute on Ageing (MyAgeing) senior research officer Chai Sen Tyng said these mukim are considered “naturally occurring retirement communities”.

Naturally occurring retirement communities are those with large proportion of residents over 60 but are not planned or designed to meet the needs of seniors living independently in their homes.

“This poses a big social policy challenge as the needs of the residents have changed,” said Chai.

These areas, he said, began as young townships. But as birthrates dropped and residents grew older, the needs of the community changed.

He said the government needs to keep a close track on the changing distribution of older persons to make sound urban planning decisions.

“Most elderly persons don’t move; they may have assets as they have bought a house and have an emotional connection to it.

“Many of them opt not to move to their children’s houses,” he said, noting that the elderly may be living on their own or only with their partners.

The government needs to be aware of the living arrangements of older persons to better provide them with needed facilities and services.

Areas where the majority of residents are older persons would need specific services that cater to the elderly, such as daycare centres for seniors and elderly community-based services, said Chai.

Local governments also need to think of ways to generate income from areas with large populations of older persons.

Chai cited Taiping in Perak as an example of how local authorities can better serve an ageing population.

Taiping has senior citizen activity centres that focus on health, recreational, learning and productive programmes in collaboration with various agencies and welfare volunteer associations.

Chai said local governments need to consider incorporating multi-generational facilities, which are built for children, the disabled and the elderly.

“Penang, Perak and Sarawak have committed to implementing the World Health Organisation’s Age-friendly Cities framework, while Subang Jaya and Petaling Jaya did their own study for smart age-friendly cities,” he said.

Major towns also need to deal with issues such as worsening traffic congestion and overcrowding at government hospitals and clinics.

Chai said in the case of Kuala Lumpur, it had seen people leaving the city to live in other places as it is no longer conducive for families to live there.

“More families in the capital city have moved out to Kuala Lumpur’s suburbs.

“It’s not that Kuala Lumpur is not developing but because families and locals are getting crowded out.

“Many people who stay there are now non-Malaysians,” he said.

According to the MyCensus 2020’s figures, Kuala Lumpur saw a negative net migration of 16,100 people, with 22,200 moving out of the city and 6,100 coming in.

Chai said in major towns where the urban poor is prevalent, there is also the need to have demographical intelligence to better identify who needs aid and where.

“When the government distributes aid, there are limitations to who gets prioritised.

“You should not assume that when a location has many elderly people then it must a poor area, especially the major towns,” he said.

He warned that bigger households with few numbers of working adults would face bigger financial constraints.

“We lack demographic intelligence at household level, and we do not really know where the poor people are, unless we have a family or household registry.

“We are not correctly applying the poverty line income and lack actual scenario mapping that can help local authorities,” he said.

He said with a household registry, aid distribution will be more accurate and will directly reach the needy.

He said there is a lot of room for local governments to work with state and federal agencies to make local spaces more age-friendly, not only for the elderly but also others in the community such as the disabled.