Photo courtesy of Washington University

With more than 100 million citizens over the age of 65, China is one of the fastest-aging countries in the world. The demographic shift, an unanticipated (if entirely predictable) result of the country’s one-child policy, is typically considered a liability – a brake on the country’s economic growth.

But the country’s older adults represent a pool of human capital that can be tapped for important and meaningful roles, according to participants at a recent conference in Shandong, China’s first national conversation about productive aging.

“An aging society represents an opportunity, not just a crisis,” said Nancy Morrow-Howell, Ph.D., a professor at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, which helped conceive and sponsor the conference. “Expanding opportunities for productive engagement, including paid employment, formal volunteering and mutual aid may reduce social costs by reducing health care expenses and the need for post-retirement income supports.”

At the conference, approximately 200 scholars from China and other countries explored the need for new social policies and attitudes that encourage increased productive engagement in society by older adults – including voluntarism and working longer.

Li Zou, the international director of the Center for Social Development at Washington University, said China’s one-child policy has created a “four-two-one” family system: four grandparents, two children and one grandchild – which has the potential to place great strain on not only family units, but also on the economy as a whole.

Another challenge cited is that many of China’s older adults come from rural farming communities, requiring different thinking to enable people to be as productive as they can as they age.

Watch a video about the aging of the U.S. and China, or read the report.