The Challenges of Population Aging in the People’s Republic of China

While the PRC's aging population poses economic challenges, if managed well it could generate new employment opportunities with the emergence of new professions related to elderly care. However, capturing these benefits requires labor market reforms, higher public spending to finance long-term care and pensions, and policy support to form a needs-oriented economic system for the aging population. This note discusses policies on labor market changes, effective elderly care, and addressing the increasing old-age dependency ratio.