China: Demographic changes ahead
28. April 2011
China has the same problem as europe: Too many old, and too less young to feed them. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
China’s population is aging very fast and more and more people like to live in cities, the chinese Government reported on Thursday. The last year national census report questioned if China should continue its one-child-policy. The census also showed that there is a sharp drop in the number of young people of China. The percentage of people over the age of 60 increased by 13.3 percent from 2000, and the percentage of young people (under the age of 14) is only 16.6 percent. So the number of young people turned down 6.3 percent from 2000.
The rapid aging of the chinese population has fueled uncertainties and worries over China. It seems difficult for China to sustain its high economic growth because there are only a few people available to work and learn new things in industries and factories. China can face many difficulties to build roads of success that transforms China into the world’s biggest economy after the United States.
Census and demographic shifts indicates that China will grow old before it becomes well off enough per capita basis, so that the few young people can support the social system for old fellow citizens. The census released on thursday at a news conference indicates that about 49.7 % of the 1.34 billion population are living in cities. The increase in population is 73.9 million, which is a slower rate than in previous decades; this population rate is equal to Turkey, Texas and California.
Currently China’s government limited urban couples to one child and rural families to two. Many experts talked about this issue that whether China will relax that policy or not. The speculation has also raised that despite this fact the president of China, Hu Jintao, forced to maintain this strict family planning policy to keep the birth rate low in China.
Wang Feng, director of Brookingd – Tsinghua Center and population expert said that confirmed about low birth rates and substantial migration flows after the census results. This policy reduced the traditional preference of large families and poverty. But there is an increasing number of serious concerns and side effects of this policy, such as rapidly aging population and selective abortions of girls.
Commissioners of the National Bureau of Statistics informed about the problems faced by China due to aging population. Wang said that it is the first time in history that half of the chinese population is currently urbanized which is one the great social and economic change.
The president of China, Hu Jintao, told on Tuesday that the country will stick on this strict family planning policy with low birth rate. He also stated that social securities and services fora number of older people should be improved. He also expressed concerns about the formulation of strategies to cope with more retirees.
(rockefellernews/rt)
