The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC, China’s parliament) on Friday decided to gradually increase the retirement age for men and women from January 1, 2025, China Central Television reports.
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The decision was made on September 13 during the 11th session of the Standing Committee of the 14th NPC. According to the text of the document distributed by the TV channel, starting from January 1, 2025 and over the next 15 years, the retirement age for working men in China will be gradually increased from the current 60 to 63 years, and for women – from the current 50 and 55 years (for workers and employees) to 55 and 58, respectively.
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Modern China faces serious demographic challenges, including gender imbalance and an aging population, brought about by China’s one-child policy introduced in the late 1970s, under which urban families were limited to having only one child and in villages – two, if the first child is a girl.
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The Ministry of Civil Administration of the People’s Republic of China previously reported that in 2022, a record low number of marriages was registered in China, with only 6.833 million couples formalizing their relationships, which was the lowest number in the country in 37 years.
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Earlier, the State Bureau of Statistics of the People’s Republic of China published a report according to which China’s population at the end of 2023 fell to 1.409 billion, which is 2.08 million less than at the end of 2022.
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Du Peng, vice chancellor of the People’s University of China, previously said that elderly people will make up nearly 40% of China’s population by 2050.
