China population: raising retirement ages won’t ‘make a big difference’ in workforce size amid demographic crises
- China’s ageing crisis is deepening, with 280.04 million people over 60 years old at the end of 2022, up from 267.36 million people at the end of 2021
- China confirmed early last year that it intends to gradually delay retirement ages from 2025, but doing so ‘would keep relatively few older people in work’
02:14
Chinese reluctant to have children as China reports first population fall in 61 years
Raising China’s retirement ages will “not make a big difference to the size of the workforce”, according to an analyst, as the country faces up to its demographic crises after its population declined for the first time in six decades last year.
The official data also showed that China’s ageing crisis is deepening, with 280.04 million people aged over 60 at the end of 2022, up from 267.36 million people in 2021 – an increase from 18.9 per cent to 19.8 per cent of the population.
Last year, 209.78 million people were also aged 65 and over, up from 200 million in 2021. The 2022 total accounted for 14.85 per cent of the population, up from 14.16 per cent in 2021.
Raising [retirement ages] would keep relatively few older people in work, since most workers today keep working once they have passed retirement age
“The contraction in China’s population has triggered renewed discussion of what the government could do to counter the demographic drag. One popular suggestion is to lift China’s statutory retirement ages, which are very low,” said Mark Williams, chief Asia economist at Capital Economics.