Publications

- November 1, 2010: Vol. 2, Number 10

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Aging China: China’s Aging Population Is Creating Challenges for Senior Care

by Richard Davis

Steady improvements in life expectancy combined with declining fertility rates have contributed to the world’s rapidly aging population. This trend has major implications for many countries around the world as their social institutions struggle to cope with the increasing burden placed on them.

For emerging economies such as China where the population is aging at a greater rate than most developing countries, this trend is creating enormous challenges for senior care. Investors in China can look to how other countries, such as the United Kingdom and Australia, have managed their senior care industries. There are approximately 1.32 billion people living in the People’s Republic of China and the over 65 population was 110 million as of 2008. Socioeconomic changes such as the one-child policy (introduced in 1978) and large rural-urban migration have made the tradition of aging at home with family a less viable solution for elderly Chinese. This issue has been named the “4:

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