Modern Geográfia (Jul 2018)
Kína elöregedő társadalma – Belső kihívások, lehetséges megoldások
Abstract
China is the world’s most populous country and has the largest ageing population worldwide. The Chinese government implemented a family planning policy in 1979, ordering couples from China’s ethnic Han majority to assume only one child. For 36 years the population control policy remained basically untouched. By the time the law was implemented, only five percent of the total population of China was at least 65 years of age. Today, this number has reached nine percent, which is around 123 million people. During that time, the birth rate had dimidiated which became visible in the past two decades and the labor pool started to shrink. In 2015, the working age population of China decreased by a record 4.87 million, much more down from the previous year’s drop of 3.71 million, resulting in total the third-straight annual decline in the labor force, according to the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics (January, 2015). The ageing population of China may be a signal or one of the causes for the slowdown of economic growth because it resulted in a drop in productive labor force meanwhile the increasing average wage level is making China less competitive to other labor intensive countries. As an answer to the low fertility rate and the ageing society, the Chinese government permitted to change the previous regulation to “two child policy” allowing its people to have two children.Balancing between ageing population and economic growth requires fresh and innovative strategies and policies from the administration. Ageing is a new challenge many countries are facing already or will face in the near future. This study aims to show and analyze the current situation, the future possibilities and provides a critical analysis of the strategies of the Chinese government, as well as to focus on the progress and the socio-structural obstacles.
