Aging Population Challenges China

China saw an increase of its elderly population by half a percentage point over last year, the largest increase rate ever in history.

Aging problems have rapidly arisen amid its comparatively poor social and economic conditions.

Chen Zhe has more.
Statistics released by the Office of China National Committee on Aging shows the number of people aged 60 and above in the country increased to more than 167 million in 2009, representing 12.5 percent of its total population.

The number of people in their 80s or older approached 19 million last year, and will rise by 1 million annually. The average life expectancy of the country is now over 73 years of age.

Wu Yushao, deputy director of the Office of China National Committee on Aging says the situation has posed a huge challenge for China.

"Its welfare system is still backward in which a large number of senior people in rural areas are not included. Services for the elderly are too weak to handle the situation."

With the growing number of retired workers, China's pension system also faces a shortage of funds.

A report released by China's top think tank, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, estimates China's pension "empty accounts" has scaled about 1.3 trillion yuan. By the end of 2004, the number was 740 billion yuan.

Jiang Xiangqun, an expert on population research with Renmin University explains.

"The collected funds can't meet the demand of a growing number of retired workers who have longer life expectancy. The government was forced to borrow money from individual accounts to pay the pension for retired workers. That leads to more empty accounts."

To increase pension funds, the expert suggests that the government should expand channels to raise money.

"The government has to multiple channels to raise pension funds, such as from the central finance or state assets to make up for the hole. It has also piloted to operate the pension funds in the capital market for its maintenance and appreciation. It will help solve the problem if the market is stable and the economy develops."

According to the Office of China National Committee on Aging, 320 counties from 31 provinces nationwide have started to exercise new models of the rural social pension insurance.

Fifteen million elderly people in those areas have received the basic old-age pension from the central finance.

For CRI, I'm Chen Zhe.