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Welfare Provision for the Aged in Rural China

Every life passes through different stages, from childhood, through adolescence and adulthood to old age. With economic development and improvements in hygiene, the tendency is for the birth rate of a population to drop and the life span of individuals to increase. The interaction of these two features leads to the emergence of an aging population, a common feature of population structure in modern society, and a fact which policy makers must take into account. The United Nations defines people aged 65 and above as 'old', and countries (or regions) where 10 per cent or more of the population are old as 'aging population type countries' (or regions). According to data issued by the US Population Consultancy Bureau, there were 270 million old people in the world in 1981, accounting for 6 per cent of the total world population, and in more than 50 countries old people made up 11-15 per cent of the population.' These countries were mainly located in Europe, North America and Oceania. In the Middle East and Asia, only Cyprus has 10 per cent of its population consisting of old people. In other Asian countries, the percentage was lower than 9 per cent. In recent years, however, Japan has rapidly developed an aging population. Its proportion of old people in 1960 was 5.7 per cent. By 1983 this had increased to 9 per cent, indicating that Japan will soon join other aging population type countries in the near future. Owing to rapid population growth in the 1950s and 1960s in China, the age structure of the population is dominated by young people, and therefore belongs to the 'young population type'. According to the third national census data of 1982, China has about 49.29 million people above the age of 65, making up 4.91 per cent of the total population.2 Although this is a low percentage, the absolute number of old people is very high because of the huge base population. Rapid economic development has improved people's