China population: college graduates offered free accommodation to help tackle ageing society, but feasibility questioned
- Just under 15 per cent of China’s population were aged over 65 last year, but longer life expectancy and a declining fertility rate are creating a rapidly ageing society
- An estimated 400 million people in China will be aged over 60 by 2035, representing 30 per cent of the population
A nursing home in eastern China has taken a newfangled approach, though already seen in the likes of the Netherlands and the United States, to tackle one of the nation’s many demographic issues.
But offering college graduates free accommodation for spending time with elderly residents raises a question among academics whether it could be a feasible solution to a rapidly ageing society without government support.
Promoted as “multi-generational housing,” the programme was first piloted by the Civil Affairs Bureau of Binjiang district in Hangzhou in 2019.
Two groups of 15 companions have already passed through the programme at the publicly-funded Sunshine Home, with recruitment under way for a third batch of between 15-20, who will be offered a one-year contract.
The companionship can “meet the social and emotional needs of the elderly … and also reduce the living costs for young individuals who have just entered the workforce,” the authority said via its WeChat account.