China has stepped into an aging society in 2005 with its 7.6% population reached the age
of 65 and above(Flaherty et al. 2007; Population Division 2009). China already has the
largest aging population in the world and is expected to have more than 400 million
elderly persons by 2050, accounting for 30% of its total population(Beijing Municipal
Working Commission on Aging 2009). It is confirmed in this research that China showed
a clear and irreversible trend of population aging by different indicators in the past
decades. Nonetheless, the degree of unevenness in its spatial development of aging
population is high in China. How China’s social security system copes with the drastic
demographic changes constitute the focus of this research. A comprehensive evaluation
of the social security system for aging population in China, through a case study of
Beijing, is conducted in this paper. The main channels of assistance under the current
elderly social security system, including old age pension, social health care, institutional
care and family care, are examined through statistical analysis. It is found that as China’s
GDP grows, the provision levels of pension, health care and institutional care rise as well.
However, there exists no significant relationship between China’s GDP and family care.
This research further shows that social eldercare does not necessarily replace family care
both in terms of financial support and daily living care. In contrast, more elderly depend
on their own and also support themselves by labor income when family care is not
available. The current social security system is found to be far from perfection and falls
short of fulfilling the comprehensive needs of the elderly. The increasing severity of
aging problem may worsen the situation. Developing a social security system with broader
elderly coverage, fairness among the rural and urban residents and financially
sustainability would be the future direction for China to face the problem of aging
population. / published_or_final_version / China Development Studies / Master / Master of Arts in China Development Studies
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:HKU/oai:hub.hku.hk:10722/167191 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Man, Huen-pok., 文萱博. |
| Publisher | The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) |
| Source Sets | Hong Kong University Theses |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | PG_Thesis |
| Source | http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B48183398 |
| Rights | The author retains all proprietary rights, (such as patent rights) and the right to use in future works., Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License |
| Relation | HKU Theses Online (HKUTO) |
Page generated in 0.0022 seconds