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| Population by Age and Sex, 1950 - 2050; Proportion Elderly, Working Age, and Children |
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Source: United Nations Population Division (2002): World Population
Prospects, 2002 |
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This animation of China's population demonstrates the dramatic change in the country's age structure between 1950 and 2050. While the number of children was increasing rapidly between 1950 and about 1970, it is now declining significantly, due to China's strict one-child family planning program. In the next few decades, China will experience a most serious process of population aging - as can be seen by the shrinking base of the population pyramid and the increasing numbers of people age 50 and above. |
| The bars in the lower half part of the animation represent the percentages of elderly (age 60+), working age population (age 20-59) and children or young adults (0-19) in the population (the gray bars represent the situation of 1950). |
