China Rapidly Becomes Another Japan

The first census in a decade shows that Chinese population is rapidly aging, people over the age of 60 now account for 13.3% of the population, up nearly 3% since 2000. Nearly one in six people in China is over 60 years old.

Although in terms of percentage of aging population, China is still far behind Japan, the pace of aging in China has been alarmingly similar to that of Japan.

Merely twenty years ago, only 11.6% of the population in Japan was 65 years or older. Now, the ratio stand at 21%, the highest proportion of elderly citizens in the world.

In China, the aging trend is accelerating, according to Ma Jiantang, head of the National Bureau of Statistics. The 3% increase in a decade could seen a significance booster from now on.

One the other hand, the proportion of mainland Chinese people aged 14 or younger was 16.6%, down by 6.29 percentage points from 2000.

The quickly aging trend could bring many issues, such as an increased demand for care facilities, care services and personnel, heavy burden on young workers, and anxiety over post-retirement care.