China Sees More Elderly People Than Children Supported by Families

For the first time, families in China are supporting more elderly people than children, according to the government. The news comes from official data released in the last week by China's National Bureau of Statistics, which published the latest figures.

The data show that the dependent elderly ratio rose to 23% last year. The child dependency figure stood at 22% over the same year. A "dependency ratio" measures how many people depend on those who are working to support them.

China has a large number of older residents. There are more than 223 million people in China aged 65 and above, according to the figures. People in this age group account for nearly 16% of China's total population.

Children are also a large group in the country. About 213 million children aged 14 and under live in China.

The figures are linked to a past policy. China's one-child policy was in place from 1980 to the end of 2015. The government estimates that the policy prevented about 400 million births.

Birth rates in China have also hit historic lows. Experts are following these changes closely. Professor Stuart Gietel-Basten works at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and Mu Zheng is a sociology lecturer at the National University of Singapore.

Support for older people is also growing. By the end of 2025, more than 53 million elderly people were receiving senior citizen allowances and subsidies. Beijing has also included further support for older people in its five-year economic blueprint, which was announced earlier this year.