By Xiao Junyan, Research Department of Rural Economy, DRC

Research Report, No.109, 2021 (Total 6174) 2021-5-7

Abstract: China has seen a sharp rise in the number of older people in rural areas. Facts show that the number of old people in rural areas is significantly higher than that in urban areas, the outflow of rural migrant workers to cities will increase the number of aging population in rural China, and consequently people will find more and more silver-haired seniors in villages. The prominent problems to be addressed are as follows. The decline in the proportion of young farmers in the agricultural sector weakens the backbone of the agricultural development; the elderly in rural areas generally have low income and low quality of elderly care service; the gradual disintegration of traditional family models obviously cripples the function of home-based elderly care; the advantages of traditional elderly care provided by rural collective economic organizations are phasing out; the low level of public service in rural areas affects the improvement of elderly care service quality. We need to increase and ensure farmers’ income through multiple ways, establish a special living subsidy system for the elderly in rural areas in underdeveloped areas, roll out special plans and institutional arrangements for elderly care service in rural areas at the national level, promote a virtuous circle between elderly care service industry and rural economic development and cultivate a diversified old-age service provision mode with the aid of non-governmental sectors.

Keywords: aging population in rural areas, features, problems, countermeasures