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So even with the policy change, not a lot of young people choose to have a second kid since the cost of living is so high.' 'In addition, just as many young people in the developed countries, young people in China today don't really want to have kids because of the high cost.

'Modern medicine has prolonged our life expectancy, so it's inevitable for China to have an aging population,' he said. He asked to be identified by only one name to avoid attracting the attention of authorities. Chen, a retired professor living in Beijing, said that the one-child policy is not the only thing that's contributing to today's demographic trend. Su, the retired teacher in Beijing, is from the latter group. This means that people born in the 1940s could have three or four children to care for them when they are old, while people born in the 1950s and 1960s usually have only one adult child. China enforced the one-child policy between 19, aiming to control population growth. Another 34% have an adult child living nearby. According to a study published in the China Economic Journal in 2015, roughly 41% of Chinese 60 and over live with an adult child. In China, families have traditionally been the caregivers and major source of financial support for older adults. As of 2019, life expectancy was 77.3 years nationwide, with city dwellers expected to keep going past 80 years. Officials set the ages in the 1950s, when China's life expectancy was less than 45. Male workers become eligible to retire at 60 female office workers, 55 and female blue-collar workers, 50. Only in Africa do demographers see population growth, at least over the next two decades.Ĭhina's current economy was built on lives spent in poorly paid manufacturing jobs which offered little to workers for their retirement. As birthrates fall in the Americas, Europe and elsewhere in Asia, this construct is challenging governments. In many developing and developed nations, younger working people pay part of their income into pension plans, offsetting the costs of an aging population. I only care about my retirement benefits and how I can enjoy my remaining years.' She asked to be identified by only one name to avoid attracting the attention of authorities.Ĭhina is not alone in facing this demographic tension.

'But to be honest, I couldn't care less about our country's family planning policies and what the government is going to do from now on. Su, a retired teacher living in Beijing, told VOA Mandarin. 'The aging of the population has further deepened, and in the coming period, (we will) continue to face pressure for the long-term balanced development of the population,' Ning said. But by 2035, the government-run basic pension system for corporate employees will likely be depleted, according to a 2019 Chinese Academy of Social Sciences report.Ĭhina's 'increasing elderly population will reduce the supply of labor force and increase the burden on families' elder care and the pressure on the supply of basic public services,' said Ning Jizhe, head of the NBS, at a May 11 press conference in Beijing marking the release of the census. In about 25 years, one-third of China's population will be retirees, and their living and health care expenses will eat up a quarter of the country's GDP, according to the NBS census report, which was released last week. This came even though the one-child policy was abolished in 2016. Over the past decade, China's overall population grew at the slowest pace since the first modern census in 1953, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

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China's latest census shows that the country's population is quickly growing older, creating a policy challenge familiar to many governments: how to cover elder care costs while ensuring continued prosperity for everyone else.