Ageing of the population in China: Trends and implications

The last decade has seen increasing interest in population ageing, especially in the more developed countries of the world (Tinker, 1989). The explosion of books, journals and articles on ageing gives an indication of this growing interest. There are plenty of reasons for this interest: the profit motive, the debate about the provision of social services and health care, the involvement of elderly people themselves, and most importantly the changing age structure of the population, which will result in increasing dependency of the elderly on society.