AGEING IN ASIA AND THE PACIFIC: KEY FACTS

China

KEY INDICATORS

Section I: Demographic indicators

1. Key population indicators, 20251

Indicators Value
Population age 60+ (thousands) 304,896
Population aged 60+ (% of total population) 21.5
Percentage of women out of the population aged 60+ 53.8
Percentage of women out of the population aged 80+ 61.3
Life expectancy at birth (years) 78.4
Median age (years) 40.1
Total fertility rate (2025) 1.0

2. Population by age group, selected years1

Thousands
Age 1950 1990 2020 2025 2030 2050
0-14 189,269 332,241 256,281 221,115 173,800 129,373
15-64 327,341 759,715 989,717 986,754 971,978 745,291
60+ 43,646 94,209 255,368 304,896 369,152 504,007
65+ 27,434 61,661 180,335 211,160 256,435 389,677
80+ 3,327 7,757 32,325 36,922 48,621 132,065
Total 544,044 1,153,616 1,426,332 1,419,029 1,402,213 1,264,342

2. Population by age group, selected years1

Percentage
Age 1950 1990 2020 2025 2030 2050
0-14 34.8 28.8 18.0 15.6 12.4 10.2
15-64 60.2 65.9 69.4 69.5 69.3 58.9
60+ 8.0 8.2 17.9 21.5 26.3 39.9
65+ 5.0 5.3 12.6 14.9 18.3 30.8
80+ 0.6 0.7 2.3 2.6 3.5 10.4

3. Percentage of total population by age group and sex, selected years1
1990
2020
2030
2050

4. Percentage of male and female population by age, 20251

5. Proportion of the total population by broad age group, 1950-20501

6. Proportion of population aged 80 years or over as percentage of population aged 65 years or over, 1950-20501

7. Median age of the total population, 1950-20501

8. Life expectancy at birth, male and female, 1950-20501

9. Potential old-age support ratio (ages 20-64/age 65+), 1950-20501

10. Speed of ageing (Number of years required or expected for percentage of population aged 65 and over to rise from 7 per cent to 14 per cent)1,2

11. Life expectancy at birth (both sexes), and total fertility rate, 1990-20501

Section II: Employment and social protection

12. Labour force participation rate of people aged 65 years or over, percentage, latest available year3

icon both 21.1 icon male 27.6 icon female 15.1

13. Percentage of older persons covered by social protection systems including floors (SDG 1.3.1), 2020 or latest available year4

14. Legal coverage of contributory mandatory pensions, total, female, male (percentage of working-age population), 2020 or latest available year4

icon both 100 icon male 100 icon female 100

15. Informal employment rate of 65+ (percentage of informal employment out of total employment in that age group)3

icon both n.a. icon male n.a. icon female n.a.

Section III: Health

16. Life expectancy (LE) versus healthy life expectancy (HALE) at age 60, both sexes, most recent years5

17. Life expectancy (LE) versus healthy life expectancy (HALE) at age 60, male and female, most recent years5

18. Out-of-pocket health expenditure as percentage of current health expenditure (CHE), latest available years5

19. Suicide rate, per 100,000 population, by sex and age group, latest available year 20215

20. Dementia physician density, per 1,000 population, latest available year5

icon physician 2.2 persons

21. Total expenditure on social protection (excluding health), percentage, 2020 or latest available year4

icon both 7.2

Section IV: Living arrangements

22. Household living arrangements of people aged 65 years or over, latest available years6

23. Literacy rate of older persons age 65 years or over, percentage, latest available year 20187

icon both 85
(of 65+ total population) icon male 92.8
(of 65+ male population) icon female 78
(of 65+ female population)

24. Internet users, as a percentage of their age group, latest available years8

Suggested citation: ESCAP 2026. Ageing in Asia and the Pacific: key facts, available at: https://www.population-trends-asiapacific.org/data/population-ageing

Footnote

  1. United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2024). World Population Prospects 2024, Online Edition.
  2. Kinsella, Kevin and Wan He (2009). “An Aging World: 2008”. International Population Reports, Issued June 2009: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Department of Commerce. Available at https://www.census.gov/prod/2009pubs/p95-09-1.pdf
  3. International Labour Organization, ILOSTAT Data. Available at https://ilostat.ilo.org/data/ (accessed on 6 January 2026).
  4. World Social Protection Data Dashboards. Available at https://www.social-protection.org (accessed on 6 January 2026).
  5. World Health Organization, Global Health Observatory data repository. Available at https://www.who.int/data/gho (accessed on 3 March 2023 and 6 January 2026).
  6. United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2022). Database on the Households and Living Arrangements of Older Persons 2022. Available at https://www.un.org/development/desa/pd/data/living-arrangements-older-persons (accessed on 3 March 2023).
  7. UNESCO Institute of Statistics. UIS Data Browser. Available at https://databrowser.uis.unesco.org/ (accessed on 6 January 2026).
  8. ITU (2026). ITU DataHub. Online. Available at: https://datahub.itu.int/. Accessed 10 May 2026.