Yes, currently. But China’s population will age faster than in almost all other countries. China has one of the world’s lowest fertility rates. The number of working-age people peaked already in 2015 and has been decreasing ever since. By 2050, there will be fewer than 2 working-age individuals for every person ages 65 and older (for comparison: in the U.S., there will be 2.5 working-age adults per for every person 65+ in 2050).
The problem is that China is still not a high-income country. Unlike many other countries, China hasn’t benefited from what is called a demographic dividend—a time of economic growth driven by a large working-age population compared with smaller numbers of dependents ages 65 and older and younger than 15.
It is true that China experienced unprecedented economic growth during its dividend period in the 1980s and 1990s, but this growth started later than in countries like, for example, Singapore and Japan, and its fertility rate decline has also been faster since. As a result, it exited its demographic dividend era with quite relatively low income per capita, and this threatens to leave the country with fewer resources to care for an aging population.
Simply speaking, countries like Japan, Singapore, and the U.S. got rich before they got old, China got old before it got rich.
Yes, currently. But China’s population will age faster than in almost all other countries. China has one of the world’s lowest fertility rates. The number of working-age people peaked already in 2015 and has been decreasing ever since. By 2050, there will be fewer than 2 working-age individuals for every person ages 65 and older (for comparison: in the U.S., there will be 2.5 working-age adults per for every person 65+ in 2050).
The problem is that China is still not a high-income country. Unlike many other countries, China hasn’t benefited from what is called a demographic dividend—a time of economic growth driven by a large working-age population compared with smaller numbers of dependents ages 65 and older and younger than 15.
It is true that China experienced unprecedented economic growth during its dividend period in the 1980s and 1990s, but this growth started later than in countries like, for example, Singapore and Japan, and its fertility rate decline has also been faster since. As a result, it exited its demographic dividend era with quite relatively low income per capita, and this threatens to leave the country with fewer resources to care for an aging population.
Simply speaking, countries like Japan, Singapore, and the U.S. got rich before they got old, China got old before it got rich.
I didn’t find the WHO article, but Wikipedia says that Japan will have 36 % of its population over 60 by the year 2040. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fb/Japan_Age_Makeup_1920-2010_with_Projection_to_2060.png