Population aging problem in China
Population aging problem in China
The current situation of aging problem in China is serious, and will become severer in the future.
“China is rapidly getting older. Three decades ago, only 5 percent of population was over 65; today, 123 million people, or 9 percent of population, are over this age. A report released by a government think tank forecasts that China will become the world’s most aged society in 2030. Further, by 2050 China’s older population will likely swell to 330 million, or a quarter of its total population.”(Yanzhou Huang)
Three main reasons speed up the aging problem. Based on higher life quality, people have longer average life expectancy. Second, the baby boomers start getting old. Also, China has one child policy that controls the population (Yanzhou Huang)
The aging problem brings the primary challenge to China, but also an opportunity to develop some new industry.
First of all, it is influence China’s international competitiveness. “It leads to a drop in the proportion of the productive labor force, which in turn raises the average wage level, making China less competitive in labor-intensive industries. In years past, China was able to rely on almost unlimited low-cost labor in achieving its double-digit economic growth. However, if China is approaching its Lewis turning point, a point at which China would move from a vast supply of low-cost workers to a labor shortage economy, it could quickly lose its competitive edge to other emerging economies that still enjoy significant demographic dividends.”(Yanzhou Huang)
“According to an OECD report, China will be surpassed by both India and Indonesia in terms of economic growth rate after 2020”
Second, China’s workforce shrank in 2012 for the first time in decades (Charles Riley). And this phenomenon trends to continue. Some cities of China begin to implement to one child policy more flexibly. Qinwei Wang, analyst of Capital Economics, claimed that the influence of one child policy change
The current situation of aging problem in China is serious, and will become severer in the future.
“China is rapidly getting older. Three decades ago, only 5 percent of population was over 65; today, 123 million people, or 9 percent of population, are over this age. A report released by a government think tank forecasts that China will become the world’s most aged society in 2030. Further, by 2050 China’s older population will likely swell to 330 million, or a quarter of its total population.”(Yanzhou Huang)
Three main reasons speed up the aging problem. Based on higher life quality, people have longer average life expectancy. Second, the baby boomers start getting old. Also, China has one child policy that controls the population (Yanzhou Huang)
The aging problem brings the primary challenge to China, but also an opportunity to develop some new industry.
First of all, it is influence China’s international competitiveness. “It leads to a drop in the proportion of the productive labor force, which in turn raises the average wage level, making China less competitive in labor-intensive industries. In years past, China was able to rely on almost unlimited low-cost labor in achieving its double-digit economic growth. However, if China is approaching its Lewis turning point, a point at which China would move from a vast supply of low-cost workers to a labor shortage economy, it could quickly lose its competitive edge to other emerging economies that still enjoy significant demographic dividends.”(Yanzhou Huang)
“According to an OECD report, China will be surpassed by both India and Indonesia in terms of economic growth rate after 2020”
Second, China’s workforce shrank in 2012 for the first time in decades (Charles Riley). And this phenomenon trends to continue. Some cities of China begin to implement to one child policy more flexibly. Qinwei Wang, analyst of Capital Economics, claimed that the influence of one child policy change