But there are few countries which face a challenge quite as steep as China. The world’s most populous country with 1.4 billion people, has a one child policy, meaning that its population growth has been slowed artificially.
As reported in a recent article on Bloomberg.com, Chinese government census data shows that nearly 180 million Chinese were over the age of 60 in 2009, but by 2050, that number could balloon to 437 million people, representing about a third of the overall population.
That means the aging population is expanding so rapidly that the government is having trouble keeping up providing assisted living communities for them to live.
“The goal at these homes is subsistence for residents whose children can’t take care of them,” gerontologist Zhanlian Feng told the news source.
Despite the challenges, experts told the media outlet that China has the capabilities to take care of its aging population, just as any other country can – just on a much larger scale.