Aging is a global issue of importance in the 21st century. The world is witnessing a rapid demographic shift towards an aging population. People are living longer due to advances in education, technology, medicine, food distribution, and sanitary conditions. Thus, population aging is ubiquitous, regardless of a nation’s level of development [1]. However, there is very little research focusing on issues of older adults, particularly in poorer and developing countries [2,3]. So, much research in this field will help for the possible policy formation for the quality of life of older adults [3].

For a country like Nepal whose life expectancy was around 54 years in 1991 [4,5] is now expected to increase to 71 years in 2020. Data shows that in every two years, average life expectancy is increasing by one year in Nepal [6]. In Nepal, the Elderly population growth rate is quite higher than the population growth rate [2,3]. Different cross-sectional or review article shows that majority of Nepalese elderly are living with their children [2,3,7-9]. In the Nepali culture, generally, parents prefer to live with their children especially with son [2]. A study shows more than 80% live with their children and only 2.7% of the elderly were living with their daughters [2,3]. Children are also considered as insurance for old age because another social security system is not well developed in Nepal [2,3,11]. Recently in recent decades, the numbers of youth going abroad for employment and higher studies is increasing rapidly. Anecdotal information indicates that the effect of internal and out-migration has much affected the life of elderly people [12].

Nepal declared in 7 provinces on 20 September 2015 in accordance with schedule 4 of the Constitution of Nepal [13]. In Nepal census takes place every 10 years. The latest census was held in 2011 and the next census will be held in 2021. So, there is no provincial level elderly data which can be easily available in Nepal.

This short communication paper tries to present the provincial situation of the elderly in Nepal. It uses the re-arranged data from the 2011 census of Nepal.

Table 1 shows the provincial distribution of the elderly population in Nepal. As of 2011 Census of Nepal, there were a total of 2,154,003 elderly 60 years and above. Among the total elderly population, the highest proportion is in province 3 (21.2%), followed by province 2 (18.8%), province 1 (18.2%), and only 4.1% elderly are in province 6. Similarly, the total proportion of the elderly in Nepal was 8.1%. Province wise the proportion of the elderly shows it is highest (11.8%) in province 4 and followed by province 7 (8.6%), and least in province 6 (5.6%).

Further composition of male and female elderly is measured through the sex ratio which gives the number of male elderlies per 100 female elderly. Sex ratio above 100 is considered as an excess of male and sex ration below 100 is considered as an excess of females. The sex ratio of 100 implies both male and female is equal. The total sex ratio of the elderly 60 years and above of Nepal was 97.7 which imply there was excess of a woman in the total elderly population. In other words, there were nearly 98 males per hundred female elderly. Province 1 has nearly equal male and female elderly. Province dominated by elderly male is province 2 and province 5 only. Province dominated by female elderly is province 3, province 4, province 6, and province 7. Province 7 has only 84 males per hundred female elderly.

There is still a paucity of research carried out focusing on the issues of the elderly. With increasing population quality of life elderly should be focused [14]. Previous research has already focused on health aspects of the elderly [15-17] and mental health of the elderly [18]. Now, the provincial government should promote to carry out some local-level research and their findings should be incorporated in the policy formulation. It will help to promote the quality of life of the elderly.