GRAPPLING with the world’s biggest senior citizen population, President Xi Jinping held a high-level meeting with officials after the number of people above 60 years in the world’s most populous country crossed 220 million, 16 percent of the total population.

Xi, along with the members of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, attended a group study on the “state and future of a graying society” Friday, according to Xinhua.

The meeting was held as the latest figures showed that the population above 60 years has crossed 220 million people constituting 16 percent of the total population, far sooner than expected.

China is already feeling the heat with numbers of pensioners climbing up to 23.4 percent of the total 22 million population.

The Beijing local government expects 30 percent of the city’s population to be aged 60 or above by 2030.

By 2020, the city will pay out 200 billion yuan (US$30.7 billion) in pensions and the amount is expected to surge to 670 billion in 2030, Li Hongbing, deputy head of the Beijing Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau, has been quoted as saying by the official media recently.

The number of those aged between 16 and 59 in China will decrease to 896 million in 2020 and 824 million in 2030, while those aged 60 and over will grow to 253 million in 2020 and 365 million in 2030, new data provided by the Population and Development Studies Center at the Renmin University of China said.

China has already scrapped over the three-decade-old one-child policy, allowing couples to have two children but the policy change has not drawn a positive response from the public as many fear a second child will be a burden due to the heavy cost of education and health care.

Addressing the study group, Xi called for stepping up efforts to improve health care and social benefitsfor the elderly, and pointed to the bright prospects of the old-age business, given the huge demand for products and services.

He said government support should foster new growth points.

With the world’s largest number of senior citizens, China has improved elder care, Xi said. (SD-Agencies)