China's Aging Population

Forbes reports:

Shanghai is breaking ranks with China's one-child policy. The nation's largest city is encouraging couples to have a second child in an attempt to right the growing imbalance with its fast-aging population.

One in five Shanghai residents, some 3 million people, is a senior. That ratio is forecast to rise to 1 in 3 by 2020. But what the city is doing is just a reflection of a deeper demographic trend at work across China that has economic consequences for the rest of the world.

China is getting old. Its workforce will peak within the next 10 years and then shrink, accompanied by an explosive growth in the country's over-65s. By 2050, China's seniors alone will likely constitute a larger nation than all Americans today.

A big story.