China had over 123 million people aged over 65 in 2011 constituting about 9.1 per cent of the total population, an official report said today.
Chinese seniors aged 80 or above are expected to make up 30 per cent of the population aged 65 or above in 2050, state-run Xinhua said quoting participants at a symposium on health issues relating to the aged population.
China’s ageing population is increasing rapidly while the country’s birth rate remains low. It is estimated that the percentage of China’s ageing population will reach 16.7 per cent of the total population in the next five years, the CNWCA said.
According to international standards, a country or region is considered to have an “ageing society” when the number of people at and above 60 reaches 10 per cent or more of its total population.
Besides grim prospects of a rapid increase in old population, China which has a population of about 1.34 billion is weighed down by low birth rate as a result of one child policy.
The annual growth has been slowing down from 1.07 per cent to 0.57 per cent in the last decade. According to latest population census, 16.6 per cent of the country’s population was aged 14 or younger, which was 6.29 percentage points lower than that in the 2000 census.
China’s ageing population and the deteriorating natural environment will constrain economic growth, Mr Ma Jiantang, head of the National Bureau of Statistics, has said.