The Dominican Republic is currently navigating a defining demographic shift characterized by rapidly aging population and plummeting birth rates, new data from the country’s National Statistics Office (ONE) confirms. ONE Director Mildred Martínez has projected that the Caribbean nation’s total population will stabilize at approximately 12 million people in the coming years, capping decades of gradual population growth that is now slowing due to changing reproductive patterns.
During an appearance on the digital current affairs program *La Esquina*, Martínez broke down key demographic shifts captured in recent census data. She highlighted that the share of Dominican residents aged 60 and older has jumped considerably over the past 12 years, rising from just 9% of the total population counted in the 2010 national census to 13% in the 2022 enumeration. This sharp four-point increase, Martínez emphasized, offers clear evidence that the country’s population aging trend is advancing faster than many observers previously anticipated. She traced the core driver of this shift to a nationwide trend of smaller family sizes, with Dominican women having far fewer children on average than generations before.
Beyond the overall aging trend, the ONE director also drew attention to a persistent gender gap in life expectancy across the country. Data shows that Dominican women outlive men by an average of six years, with the average female life expectancy reaching 79 years, compared to 73 years for men. This puts the national average life expectancy across all genders at 76 years. Martínez explained that the six-year longevity gap stems from two key factors: a significantly higher rate of violent fatalities among working-age and young men, and a systemic pattern of lower utilization of preventive healthcare services by men across all age groups.