Dear MEL Topic Readers,
China's families are now supporting more old people than kids
The population of China has been declining since 2022, and it decreased
by 3.4 million to 1.4 billion last year, with 7.9 million births versus 11.3
million deaths. Since the total fertility rate has been around 1.0 per woman, the
population of children aged 14 and under now stands at about 15%. In the meantime,
the population of elderly people aged 65 and older has been rapidly increasing,
and now it consists of nearly 16% of the population. China’s retirement ages
are relatively early, about 60 to 63 for men and around 55 for women, compared
with Japan’s 65 and older, another fast-aging country. As a result, China’s
dependent elderly population compared to the working-age group reached 23%, while
the figure for children stood at 22%, supporting more elderly people than
children. As life expectancies increase, China’s working population will support
even more elderly people for longer in the future. It’s not just pensions and
healthcare spending, but also day-to-day care that increases the burden on
working populations. Will humanoids help sustain economic growth and help care for
aging people when the younger population declines? If robots can dance and play
sports, why can’t they?
Read the article and learn about the challenges of an aging population
in China.
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