7 days of world affairs

China: kindergartens are now becoming retirement homes

China's successful model is not prepared for this if there is a lack of offspring and the elderly are getting older and older.(Bild: Krone KREATIV/stock.adobe.com)

China is struggling with a massive demographic problem: 300 million people are retired, 14,800 kindergartens have had to close and the population has fallen for the third year in a row. 

A turning point for the Middle Kingdom too: a boom in pensioners instead of a baby boom. China is running out of children. India had already overtaken China by 2023 with just under 1.5 billion people. The consequences of the falling birth rate are weighing on the Chinese economy. The ageing population is advancing rapidly. Today, a quarter of the population is over 60; by 2035 it will be two thirds. By the end of the century, the Chinese population will have fallen from 1.4 billion to 800 million.

While head of state Xi Jinping is flexing his military muscles, China is struggling with the consequences of a galloping ageing population. This social problem joins other negative signals in the economy.