The latest census conducted in China showed that the average age of its inhabitants is steadily growing in the country. As a result, it may turn out that a country can grow old much earlier than it becomes rich. Such an increase in the average age of the country's population means that there is a reduction in its able-bodied population. As a result, this can also affect the growth of the country's economy. From the published official census results, it becomes clear that the population of China is growing, but in the past 10 years, its growth rate has halved.
China is still the most populated country in the world, now its population is 1.34 billion people. However, in the last decade, the number of pensioners has increased and the number of children has sharply decreased. This ratio was obtained as a result of the fact that China’s demographic policy was aimed at reducing the growth rate of the country's population. In the country, high fines are provided for couples who plan to have more than one child, if they are civil servants, then they can simply be fired from their jobs. Over the thirty years of the state program, there have even been cases where forced sterilization and forced abortion have been used.
These draconian measures of the state led to the fact that the population of China began to grow smaller, the threat of overpopulation began to recede, but the problem of aging came to the fore. The same census revealed that in 2000 the percentage of people over the age of 60 was 10.4% of the population, and now it has reached 13.3%. With such existing processes, the percentage of the working population will rapidly decline in the future, which means that the advantage of having cheap labor, which has provided China with rapid economic growth, will come to naught.
There is another factor that negatively affects the population of China - traditionally, Chinese families prefer boys, so now in the country for every hundred women there are 120 men. Such a bias can already lead to the fact that the number of Chinese bachelors, deprived of any hope of having their own family, will reach 24 million people in the country by 2020. The urban population of China so far reaches only 36.22% of the total population of the country. There is still a low level of urbanization and an excess of labor in the countryside. At the end of the 20th century, the percentage of urban population in the country averaged 0.91% annually. It is assumed that the same pace will continue at the beginning of our century.
The cities of China are expanding and strengthening, the skyscrapers of Shanghai and many other million-plus cities are skyrocketing. According to forecasts, by 2030 the population of Chinese cities should increase to 884 million people. This will amount to 59.1% of the country's population and then will reach the global level. In a previous generation of Chinese, 8 out of 10 couples married at the approval and choice of their parents or trade unions. However, today, young Chinese, especially those who live in cities, acquire their first sexual experience rather early. They live in a civil marriage without embarrassment and can change more than one partner before registering a relationship. Moreover, extramarital affairs have already become so widespread that the issue of formalizing their legal illegality is seriously discussed at the state level.
At the same time, information was published on the demographic situation in another densely populated country in the world - India. This country may overtake China in terms of population in the next 20 years, while there are no aging problems in India and the number of working people in it is constantly growing.