China's rapidly ageing population will cross 400 million by 2035 as it will enter into the phase of “severe ageing", posing numerous challenges to the world's most populous country, a top health official said on Tuesday.
China is ageing rapidly, with the number of people aged 60 years and above reaching 267 million by the end of last year accounting for 18.9 per cent of the population, Wang Haidong, director of the National Health Commission's Department of Aging and Health said.
It is estimated that the elderly population will top 300 million by 2025 and 400 million by 2035, he was quoted as saying by state-run China Daily.
The size of China's senior population and its proportion of the total population is expected to peak around 2050, posing huge challenges to the provision of public services and to the national social security system, Wang said.
On one hand, China is rapidly ageing on the other its population was in decline, raising concerns over the future availability of the labour force, the main driver of the economic growth of the Communist nation.
China's population grew by less than half a million last year to 1.4126 billion as the birth rates fell for the fifth consecutive year, stoking fears of a looming demographic crisis and its adverse impact on the world's 2nd largest economy.