Politics China's new pension regulations come into force
Due to the worsening demographic problem, a new regulation to increase the retirement age will apply in China from this Wednesday.
01.01.2025, 02:51
01.01.2025, 02:52
SDA
According to official information, this means that over the next 15 years, men will gradually be able to retire at the age of 63 instead of 60. For women, who previously had two retirement ages depending on their occupation, the limit will increase either from 50 to 55 or from 55 to 58.
Beijing had not touched the regulation for decades. The retirement age in the country with a population of around 1.4 billion was considered to be one of the lowest in the world. However, the Communist Party could not avoid taking this unpopular step as the population is shrinking. State media justified Beijing's decision last September with the "new situation of demographic development".
Fewer and fewer children
When the pension scheme was introduced in the 1950s, many people in what is now the world's second-largest economy did not even reach retirement age due to lower life expectancy. In the meantime, however, the Chinese are getting significantly older, while fewer and fewer children are being born.
As a result, the pressure on pension funds is growing, while the number of available workers is falling. Experts estimate that by 2050, more than 500 million people in China will be over 60 years old. Despite the end of the one-child policy nine years ago, women only have around 1.1 children on average. Due to high education costs, many families in cities cannot afford more than one child in the difficult economic situation.
