Introduction
China has completed demographic transition and entered the era of population ageing. The number of elderly persons will increase dramatically in the next two to three decades. As the decline of mortality in the 1950s-60s and the decline of fertility since the 1970s went ahead of China’s economic development, the current challenges resulting from demographic changes are also going ahead of economic development, and will have stronger impacts.The impact of population ageing will relate to all aspects in society and all persons in the society, therefore it is not only issues of elderly care and about elderly people. The government of China addressed ageing issues with a fully awareness on the challenges China has never had before. However the whole society is not fully prepared for the challenge, including civil society and private sectors, regarding social service and market.
This working paper is one of the background reports for the project“Population ageing in China: causes, consequences, and response strategies”carried out in the Institute of Population and Labor Economics. As a result of desk review of existing statistics and research publications, this paper describes current situation and future trend of population ageing in China,exams possible economic consequences of population ageing in the society,and reviews government responses in policy and practice; it also discusses the
potential of silver economy in the near future……
