age population. This statement can be supported by Chansarn (2010 : 200) who found the positive influence of the proportion of working-age population on the economic growth of Thailand.
However, the constant reduction in fertility rate also brings Thailand an economic threat since it led to the diminishing proportion of youth population and the smaller youth population in Thailand. Such a demographic shift will later lead to the decreasing proportion of working-age population and the smaller labor force relative to dependent population, especially old-age population (aged 60 years old and older), causing a detrimental impact on Thailand’s economic and social development. Therefore, youth empowerment is very crucial to Thailand’s prosperity since it will be a vital tool to compensate the smaller youth population. That is, it will lead to the highly productive labor force of the nation who is able to generate the constant economic growth despite the smaller labor force in a long run.
Consequently, this article presents the situation regarding youth population in Thailand and summarizes Thailand’s opportunities and challenges for youth empowerment. Moreover, it proposes public policy recommendations for youth empowerment. The next section presents the situation regarding the changes in Thailand’s youth population quantity while the issues regarding youth empowerment in Thailand will be discussed in the later sections.
Youth Population in Thailand
At this moment, several developing countries worldwide are currently confronting a youth bulge; nevertheless Thailand is confronting an opposite situation. Table 1 summarizes the significant demographic changes in Thailand during 1960 – 2010. The table shows the very high fertility rates in Thailand, which approximately equaled 6 children per one woman, during 1960 – 1970. However, after the population policy was imposed in 1970, Thailand’s fertility rates sharply declined from 5.05 children per one woman in 1970 to 1.53 children per one woman in 2010. This reduction in fertility rate led to the diminishing proportion of young population from 44.10 percent of total population in 1970 to 20.50 percent in 2010.