Tunisia is currently experiencing an increase in the number of elderly people, without having reached the stage of advanced demographic aging, indicated Hassan Kassar, teacher of demography and social sciences at the Faculty of 9 April.
Speaking this Wednesday, May 6, 2026 on national radio, he specified that Tunisia will reach this stage within 15 years, with a proportion of elderly people comparable to that observed in Europe.
The specialist insisted on the need for the State to take this development into account now and prepare for a new demographic reality.
Furthermore, he stressed that Tunisian women have contributed to transforming the traditional balances of the country’s demographic model. According to him, Tunisia is now facing a new model marked by a drop in births to a level insufficient to ensure generational renewal, a notable decline in marriage and a relative increase in divorces.
Concerning the labor market, Hassan Kassar believes that there is not really an unemployment problem in Tunisia, but rather a problem linked to the restructuring of the employment market.
He added that 55% of workers operate in the informal sector, without contributing to social funds, which he considers a worrying situation requiring particular attention. He thus called for the integration of these workers into the formal sector.
Finally, the academic affirmed that the presence of sub-Saharan Africans in Tunisia will not modify the demographic structure of the country, at least not for 200 years and in limited proportions. However, he stressed that Tunisia will need this workforce in several sectors, including construction, catering, domestic services and agriculture, believing that it will constitute an essential workforce in the future.
