China is becoming a deeply aging society at an unprecedented pace. By the end of 2025, the country's population aged 60 and above had reached 323 million, accounting for 23 percent of the total population. It is projected that the elderly population will grow at an average annual rate of 3.6 percent during the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-30), while the 60-plus ratio will rise to 27.8 percent by 2030. The old-age dependency ratio is also expected to increase rapidly, surpassing 40 percent during the 15th Five-Year Plan period and reaching 46.1 percent by 2030. China defines the old-age dependency ratio as the number of individuals aged 65 or older per 100 people of working age — or those aged between 15 and 64.
As aging deepens, the traditional pension security model centered on basic pension insurance is increasingly proving inadequate. Developing pension finance — using financial tools to support retirement savings, eldercare industry financing and eldercare service systems — has become a key pillar of China's national strategy to actively address population aging.
China's current multi-tier pension insurance system consists of three pillars. The first is the basic pension insurance system. The second includes enterprise annuities for companies and occupational annuities for government agencies and public institutions. The third pillar consists of personal pensions and other commercial retirement financial products.
