China faces largest retirement wave in next 10 years
- Charles Chau
- Topics: China, Home Page - News, News, Restructuring
It is estimated that in the next 10 years, an average of 20 million people will retire each year, according to a recently published article by Banyuetan, a journal under China’s Xinhua News Agency.
According to mainland media, the first impact of the retirement wave is the significant decline of the working-age population.
Peng Xizhe, Dean of the Institute of Aging at Fudan University, pointed out that in the tide of retirement, more than 20 million people will retire every year. The new labour supply is estimated at 17-18 million a year, so the working-age population will be reduced by more than 3 million every year.
In China, the legal retirement age for men is 60. For women, it is 55 for white-collar workers and 50 for blue-collar workers. This means that in 2022, those men born in 1962 will reach the statutory retirement age, and most female workers born in 1972 will also retire this year.
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According to international standards, a nation is classified as an ageing society when those of 60 years old and over account for at least 10% of the total population.
As of the end of 2021, China’s population aged 60 and above was officially stated at about 267 million, accounting for 18.9% of the national population, according to The BL.
