November 2018

China is an aging society. In 2055 the number of people aged over 60 in China will increase to 478 million or 33% of the population. In comparison, in the Netherlands this will rise to 25% in 2050. By 2050 China will have 65 million more elderly people than the rest of the world together. China is aging faster than elsewhere: within 45 years China has become an aging society, whereas in the rest of the world it has lasted about 200 years. Shanghai is one of the fastest aging cities, with 22% of the population now aged over 60, far above the national average of 14%. Demographic research shows that the aging of the population in rural areas will be most drastic if the migration to the big cities continues to develop according to expectations. In China, the one-child policy also leads to a sharper decline in the growth of the labor force than elsewhere. At micro level, it means that when the parents of the single-child generation (’80 -) retire, the children will have the responsibility for 4 grandparents on their shoulders. Nowadays people can also have two children, but they often do not choose this. People are used to a 1-child family and the costs of raising a child are very high. The care for the elderly is one of the spearheads of the Chinese government. There is still a lot of work to be done in this. On October 13, 2018, I was invited to Guangzhou Congress at the Guangdong Medical Association as a  . . . read more