Feb 27, 2019

Sociologists Yong Cai and Wang Feng ask whether China can keep up with its aging population given the state’s steadily and rapidly declining birthrate since the late 1960s. “The authorities had predicted that easing and then abolishing the one-child policy in the mid-2010s would trigger a baby boom; it’s been more like a baby bust,” they write, in their New York Times opinion piece, “China Isn’t Having Enough Babies.” China’s changing demographics present challenges for its leaders as they strategize to maintain economic growth and public spending in the face of a dwindling work force.

Yong Cai, PhD, is a Carolina Population Center Fellow and Associate Professor of Sociology at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Further reading:

Cai, Yong, Wang Feng, and Ke Shen. 2018. Fiscal Implications of Population Aging and Social Sector Expenditure in China. Population and Development Review. 44 (4):811-31. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/padr.12206