CHINA
By the end of the century, China will emerge as a society comprising aged people. The number of people aged 65 and above is rapidly increasing in China reflecting a change in the age structure of the population, according to a recent nationwide sample survey. The survey, based on one per cent of the total population of the world's most populous country, estimates that people aged 65 and over numbered 80.91 million by end 1995, accounting for 6.68 per cent of the nation's total population of 1.2 billion.
The survey states that, from 1991 to 1995, the number of elderly increased by 3.47 million and the annual average growth rate was 4.9 per cent, 2.25 times higher than the growth rate five years ago. Beijing Review, an official weekly, said in its latest issue, that the proportion of the elderly to the total population rose by 1.12 per cent. The report stated that in the past 50 years, China has moved from high birth rates and high mortality rates to the present low birth and low mortality rates.
The report said, "With the continuous implementation of the country's family planning policy, especially in the past 10 years, the birth rate has dropped rapidly, This is considered the basic reason for China's rapidly aging population." Youngsters aged 14 years and below will drop to 25 per cent of the total which means that China will soon become an elderly society. "By the end of the century, the transition to an aged society will be complete. An aging process which would have taken a developed country several decades or several, hundred years, will take Chipa only 30 years," said the report.
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