Aging in China: demographic alternatives

"In this article, China's future prospects have been discussed with regard to the aging of its population, by drawing heavily upon a new set of population projections prepared on the basis of the 1982 Population Census data. Unlike a variety of population projections for China currently available, our projections have placed heavy emphasis on the impact of improved mortality on China's aging process, by incorporating three alternative mortality assumptions. In our projections, all the alternative cases point to the acceleration of China's population aging, particularly after the year 2000.... From a policy point of view, these age compositional shifts will call for a change of priorities and a reallocation of resources to accommodate the rapidly growing proportion of elderly people and the steady decrease of young people in the population."