In Fast-Aging China, Elder Care Costs Loom Large

WASHINGTON - China's latest census shows that the country's population is quickly growing older, creating a policy challenge familiar to many governments: how to cover elder care costs while ensuring continued prosperity for everyone else.

Over the past decade, China's overall population grew at the slowest pace since the first modern census in 1953, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). This came even though the one-child policy was abolished in 2016. In about 25 years, one-third of China's population will be retirees, and their living and health care expenses will eat up a quarter of the country's GDP, according to the NBS census report, which was released last week. But by 2035, the government-run basic pension system for corporate employees will likely be depleted, according to a 2019 Chinese Academy of Social Sciences report. China's "increasing elderly population will reduce the supply of labor force and increase the burden on families' elder care and the pressure on the supply of basic public services," said Ning Jizhe, head of the NBS, at a May 11 press conference in Beijing marking the release of the census.