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Background

Population ageing is one of the greatest challenges that social policy makers are facing, while China’s population is aging faster than that of any other country in the world. Increasing life-expectancy and low fertility rates have meant that there are less active workers to support retirees than in the past. According to the statistics, population of over 60s achieved 178,000,000 in 2010, covering 23.6% all over the world. In addition, national economy is still developing and need time to catch up with developed countries. Faced with such challenges, how to increase pension and reform pension system has become a problem to deal with the aging population, according to minister of human resources and social security. Last year, a total of 1.3 trillion yuan (197.9 billion U.S. dollars) of pension premium was collected and about 1 trillion yuan was handed out, resulting in a balance of 300 billion yuan.

Pension

As it recorded, Tibet’s pension ranked first with 2700 RMB, followed by Beijing with 2510 RMB, leaving Jiangsu Province located at 12^th with 1728 RMB. After seeing the results, people started to ask why Jiangsu Province suffered fewer pensions when its economic power ranked in top 3. In specialists’ opinion, as developed districts, Jiangsu shall make pension policies directly related to its economic development, price level, and pension payment. The pension system and old insurance are most important items in the whole social security system to sustain the olds’ standard of living regardless of retirement. So it is necessary to keep pension steadily growing with increased price level.

Sever situation

According to National Bureau of Statistics, total 26 provinces have stepped into aging situation already in 2011. Referring to the current population growth rate, aging population would achieve 332,000,000, about 23% of the whole population in 2050. Meanwhile, China labor population will be reduced to 87,000,000 in 2050 from 97,000,000 in 2010. It is predicted that the labor force aged from 15 to 49 years old will be reduced by 230,000,000 from 2010 to 2050. With the world’s largest population, China will suffer labor shortage in 2030.

Carina for Daxue Research in China