Population-based estimates of healthy working life expectancy in China

Despite growing interest in population aging and extended working lives, little is known in developing countries about people's quality of working life and their capacity to work for longer years when approaching retirement age. This study therefore aimed to estimate the healthy working life expectancy for the middle-aged and older population in China.

We used the data of 7294 adults aged 60 years and older from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) 2011-2018. Healthy working life expectancy was estimated for the Chinese population aged 60 years and older overall and analyzed by four dimensions: sex, educational attainment, occupational type, and geographic location, using the population-based multistate life table method.

Adults in China can expect 21.60 years (95% CI 21.38-21.82) of remaining lifetime at age 60, of which 7.64 years (95% CI 7.52-7.76) were in healthy working status and 10.04 years (95% CI 9.86-10.21) were in healthy but not working status. Females had a shorter healthy working life expectancy (6.40 years [95% CI 6.26-6.53]) than males (8.90 years [95% CI 8.72-9.05]) at age 60, despite their longer total life expectancy at that age. Geographically, the highest healthy working life expectancy was observed in the Southwest Zone (7.95 years [95% CI 7.72-8.18]) and the lowest in the Northeast Zone (5.15 years [95% CI 4.87-5.42]).

The healthy working life expectancy at 60 years old in China exceeds the targeted retirement age of 65. Salient socioeconomic and geographic variations of healthy working life expectancy exist in China.