Demographic and Family Transition in Southeast Asia

Abstract

Southeast Asia is one of the most diverse regions in the world, hosting four major religions, hundreds of languages, innumerable ethnicities, and radically diverging political systems and cultures. The Southeast Asian countries are important because they are large in aggregate, strategically located, exceptionally diverse, and intellec- tually interesting. The region’s economic and geopolitical profile in the world has risen dramatically over the past decade. In global international relations, the increas- ingly integrated Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has become the hub of the emerging regional security architecture of the Asia-Pacific. Founded in 1967, ASEAN today encompasses Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam—economies at vastly different stages of development but all with immense growth potential. Timor-Leste is the only Southeast Asian country that is not a part of ASEAN now although it has engaged closely economically with ASEAN countries. The region is at the centre of a profound transformation in Asia-Pacific