Ageing Shanghai needs 35m people by 2050, demographer warns
City must grow its population by 45pc to ensure a balance between workers and older residents, demographer warns
Shanghai will need a population of 35 million people by 2050 to ensure it has enough workers to support its increasingly greying society, a demographer has warned.
Meeting that target would require the city to boost its current population of 24 million people by 45 per cent.
Shanghai would also need to put more resources into education to ensure it remained competitive with other megacities in the developed world, said Zhou Haiwang, deputy director of population and development studies under the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.
About half - 12.3 million - of Shanghai's population has permanent residency. Of that segment, 27 per cent are aged 60 or above, and 5 per cent are 80 years or older, according to the city's statistics bureau.
Speaking at a forum over the weekend, Zhou said the city's elderly population - those aged 60 or above - would climb from 4.6 million next year to 7.7 million in 2030, 9.7 million in 2040 and 11 million after 2045.
To ensure a sustainable mix of older people, children and working residents, the city would need a population of 35 million by 2050, Zhou said.