Growing old alone with technology as the last quiet witness

SINGAPORE is ageing faster than it likes to admit. We speak confidently about longevity, active ageing and silver productivity.

We are far less comfortable with the quieter, stark reality that more seniors are living alone, and some will die alone – not dramatically but silently, unnoticed for days, sometimes weeks. In 2025, there were at least 33 such deaths, according to figures compiled by social service agency Loving Heart.

Some may decry this as a moral failure. But it is a demographic one.