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Aging tsunami coming: the main finding from China’s seventh national population census

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Abstract

China is undergoing great social changes, and its demographic makeup is shifting every year along with those changes. China released key indicators from the seventh national population census on 12 May 2021. The total population of China’s mainland increased to 1.41178 billion in 2020 from 1.33972 billion in 2010 (sixth national population census) with an average annual growth rate of 0.53%. In the past 10 years, the share of the population aged above 60 and 65 years increased by 5.44% (from 13.26% in 2010 to 18.70% in 2020) and 4.6% (from 8.9 to 13.5%), respectively. The share of the population with a college education or above rose from 8.93% in 2010 to 15.47% in 2020, and the illiteracy rate dropped from 4.08% in 2010 to 2.67% in 2020. In the next decade, China is likely to face many changes, including the increasing proportion of older adults in the population, declining births, and economic transformation. In an effort to respond to the changed demographic landscape, the authorities should adopt new laws and strategies to improve government services for older adults and consider ways to support women and families and make childbearing more attractive to and feasible for women.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Lucy McClellan, MIA, from Liwen Bianji (Edanz) (www.liwenbianji.cn/), for editing the English text of a draft of this manuscript.

Funding

This study was supported by grants from the CAMS Innovation Fund for Medical Science (No.2017-I2M-1-016 and 2019-I2M-2-006); Natural Science Foundation of Tianjin (No. 19JCYBJC26600); China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2019M660921 and 2020T130436). The funding organizations had no role in the study's design and concept; the collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; or the manuscript's preparation, review, or approval.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chinese Academy of Medical Science, Peking Union Medical College Institute of Radiation Medicine, No.238, Baiti Road, Tianjin, 300192, People’s Republic of China

    Wen-Jun Tu & Qiang Liu

  2. Rehabilitation Hospital of the National Research Center for Rehabilitation Technical Aids, Beijing, China

    Xianwei Zeng

Authors
  1. Wen-Jun Tu
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  2. Xianwei Zeng
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  3. Qiang Liu
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Contributions

Drs LQ contributed equally to this work. They had full access to all the data in the study and took responsibility for the integrity of the data and the data analysis accuracy. Study concept and design: All authors; Acquisition of data: TW, ZX; Analysis and interpretation of data: All authors; Drafting of the manuscript: All authors; Critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content: LQ; Statistical analysis: TW; Administrative, technical, or material support: all authors; Obtained funding: LQ, TW; Study supervision: ZX.

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Correspondence to Qiang Liu.

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Tu, WJ., Zeng, X. & Liu, Q. Aging tsunami coming: the main finding from China’s seventh national population census. Aging Clin Exp Res 34, 1159–1163 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-021-02017-4

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