Characteristics, challenges and opportunities in the aging process

On March 5, entrusted by The State Council, the National Development and Reform Commission submitted to the first session of the 14th National People's Congress the Report on the implementation of the National Economic and Social Development Plan for 2022 and the Draft of the National Economic and Social Development Plan for 2023 (hereinafter referred to as the Report).

According to the report, the main tasks of the 2023 national economic and social development plan should include the development of elderly care and the elderly care industry, and actively respond to the aging population and fewer children; We will thoroughly implement the national strategy to actively respond to an aging population, develop elderly care services and the elderly care industry, expand the supply of inclusive elderly care, build a system of elderly care services that coordinate home-based community institutions and integrate medical and nursing care, strengthen health services and management for the elderly, and study a policy system to support the development of the silver-haired economy.

The passage of time is irreversible, and the individual is doomed to aging. At present, the aging of the global society has become irreversible, and China has become the country with the largest elderly population and one of the fastest aging countries in the world.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, by the end of 2022, China's population aged 60 or above will reach 280 million, accounting for 19.8 percent of the country's total population. The population aged 65 or above is 210 million, accounting for 14.9% of the total population. According to the forecast of the National Office on Aging, by 2033, China's elderly population will exceed 400 million, accounting for a quarter of the total population; It will peak at 487 million in 2053, accounting for more than one-third of the population.

Facing up to aging and understanding how demographic changes will affect social life is a matter for every individual in society. At present, China has entered the aging society for a short time, and the aging of population has the characteristics of large scale and fast speed. Compared with the developed countries that entered the aging society earlier, China faces greater challenges in dealing with the aging population.

On the whole, China's aging process has many "Chinese" characteristics: first, the problem of "getting old before getting rich" and "getting old before getting ready" is serious, the level of economic development is still relatively backward, and the social security system and public service policies are not complete; Second, the elderly population has strong heterogeneity and diverse levels of needs. Third, there are big differences between regions and urban and rural areas, and the challenges of rural old-age care are severe. Fourth, it has the advantages of the system and grass-roots organizations, and the multiple responsibility subjects exert joint efforts.

Recently, the 21st Century Business Herald and the Institute of Aging Research of Fudan University, the first domestic university entity think tank for aging research, jointly released the "Chinese style" elderly care Development Trend Report (hereinafter referred to as the "Report"), based on the historical and cultural accumulation of Chinese society, the aging process, regional development and governance system, to explore the aging process. "Chinese" characteristics, challenges and opportunities.

Why do we need to talk about "Chinese" retirement?

The challenges brought by the aging population to the "Chinese style" pension are intuitive and complex. As a demographic phenomenon, aging will obviously change China's population structure, and this change will affect micro individuals, medium industries and macro society, and from all aspects of society, economy and culture.

The report pointed out that with the continuous advancement of the aging process, Chinese society will face problems such as weakening family functions, insufficient payment channels for elderly care services, rising demand for medical care, insufficient supply and shortage of rural elderly care services, and structural imbalance of urban elderly care services.

For example, the population structure will become increasingly older and families will become less functional. With the deepening of population aging and the growth of urbanization rate, China's family structure is becoming simpler, the proportion of elderly groups living with their children is declining, and the elderly's demand for social pension is rising.

The size of the semi-disabled population is increasing, and the demand for medical care services is rising. With the deepening of China's aging population, the proportion of the elderly and disabled and semi-disabled elderly increases, and the demand for nursing workers in care institutions will increase significantly.

The foundation of aging environment construction is poor, and the physical environment transformation lacks standard and depth. At present, the construction of aging environment in China is still in its infancy. There are two major problems in the aging transformation of physical environment: one is the lack of authoritative, unified and perfect aging transformation standards; Second, there are some phenomena of incomplete transformation and superficial transformation in the retrofit work that has been carried out.