China's official response to the economic impact of "fewer births" and "aging": the demographic dividend still exists

  China News Agency, Beijing, September 28 (Reporter Chen Su) On the topic of "China is currently facing a "fewer birth rate" and "ageing" acceleration may have an impact on China's future economic development", Deputy Director of the National Development and Reform Commission of China Ning Jizhe, director of the National Bureau of Statistics, responded on the 28th.

  At the press conference held by the State Council Information Office on the white paper "China's Comprehensive Well-off" on the same day, Ning Jizhe said that according to the results of the seventh national census conducted in 2020, although the growth rate of China's total population has slowed down , The total fertility rate has declined and the aging degree has deepened, but on the whole, the demographic dividend still exists, the talent dividend advantage is coming later, and the population health level is continuously improving.

  He said that China is still rich in labor resources. China is still the most populous country in the world. The total population is still growing. The total working-age population is still huge. The working-age population of 16-59 years old reaches 880 million, and there are more than 300 million. Women of childbearing age can maintain a birth population of more than 10 million every year.

The dividends generated by population growth still exist, and labor resources are still relatively abundant, providing demographic dividend support for sustained economic development.

  In addition to the total population, Ning Jizhe said that the quality of China's population has improved significantly, and new advantages of talent dividends have gradually emerged.

In 2020, the average number of years of education for the working-age population of China between 16-59 years old will reach 10.75 years, an increase of 1.08 years from the 9.67 years in 2010.

There are 208 million people with tertiary education and above, accounting for 23.61% of the working-age population, which is 11.27 percentage points higher than in 2010.

The proportion of talent scale has risen by more than 10%, nearly doubled.

  Speaking of the "two-child alone" and "comprehensive two-child" policies that China has implemented in recent years, Ning Jizhe said that since the implementation of these policies, the number of births has clearly rebounded.

According to the seventh national census, the number of children aged 0-14 has increased by 30.92 million over 2010, and the proportion has risen by 1.35 percentage points.

The proportion of "second children" in the birth population increased from about 30% in 2013 to about 50% in 2017.

"The implementation of the'three-child' birth policy and supporting measures this year will help promote the increase in births, improve the age structure of the population, and achieve long-term balanced development of the population."

  Ning Jizhe said that the health level of Chinese residents has also been greatly improved, and the conditions of labor resources have been optimized.

In 2019, the life expectancy of the Chinese population reached 77.3 years, 2.47 years higher than in 2010.

The overall health level of Chinese residents is still better than the average level of middle- and high-income countries, providing effective labor input support for sustained economic development.

  "With the gradual improvement of the population policy, China's economic development has been improving for a long time. On the basis of building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way, we will still have a good guarantee of human resources." Ning Jizhe said.

(over)