China population: increasingly educated workforce could mitigate ‘perils’ of shrinking, ageing society
- The average years of schooling in China increased from 6.1 in 1985 to 10.7 in 2020, according to the Center for Human Capital and Labour Market Research
- China’s working-age population is shrinking and ageing, which ‘will drag down economic development’, according to independent demographer He Yafu
An increasingly educated workforce could “offset the perils” of China’s shrinking and ageing working-age population that threatens to weigh down on a wobbling economy, according to an independent demographer, after a new report highlighted the country’s deepening population crisis.
The average age of China’s workforce grew from 32.3 years in 1985 to 39 in 2020, according to a report released last week by the Center for Human Capital and Labour Market Research at the Central University of Finance and Economics in Beijing.
But the new report also said that the national average years of schooling increased from 6.1 in 1985 to 10.7 in 2020.
China’s working population is becoming more educated on average, which could, to an extent, offset the perils of an ageing workforce
“An ageing labour force will drag down economic development,” said He Yafu, an independent demographer based in Guangdong province.
“Young workers are more superior than senior workers, no matter in physical work or intellectual work, especially in the knowledge economy era.
“But China’s working population is becoming more educated on average, which could, to an extent, offset the perils of an ageing workforce.”
The increased years of schooling is significant in both rural and urban areas, despite a notable gap, the report showed.
Economic toll on Chinese families forces retirees back into employment
Workers in Beijing received an average of 13.14 years of education, the most in the country, followed by Shanghai at 12.16 years and Tianjin at 11.58 years.
In 2020, 43.1 per cent of China’s labour force had a high school education or higher, with 22 per cent in rural areas and 56.5 in urban areas, up from a national average of 19.4 per cent in 2001.
According to the report, Heilongjiang, Liaoning and Jilin provinces have the oldest working population in the country, with all three averaging above 40 years old, closely followed by Chongqing and Zhejiang.
Tibet has the youngest workforce with an average age of 36.7, with the labour force in Guangdong, China’s wealthiest province, ranked the fourth youngest in 2020, the report said.
The reason for this rapid growth lies in the exit of the ageing low-educated population from the labour market
Last year, 200 million people were aged 65 and over, up from 190.64 million in 2020, accounting for 14.2 per cent of the population.
The rural-urban age divide has also narrowed since 2005 as young workers have migrated to urban areas, with the average age of the labour force in rural areas increasing from age 32 in 1985 to age 40 in 2020 compared to 33 to 38.7 in urban areas, respectively.
But despite the ageing and the shrinking population, China’s human capital grew by 10 times in 2020 compared to 1985, the report said.
“The reason for this rapid growth lies in the exit of the ageing low-educated population from the labour market and the entrance of younger individuals with higher expected education and higher income,” the report said.
