China's Aging Population Threatens Economic Competitiveness and Labor Shortages

China's working age population of people between 15 and 64 already peaked back in 2016 while China's prime age population of people aged between 25 and 54 peaked even earlier more than a decade ago back in 2011 And that means that China's rapidly aging and shrinking population are set to become a major drag on the Chinese economy going forward for the next several decades to come It was during this period from 1980 onwards through roughly the present that China became known as the world's factory a time period in which Chinese labor was abundant and wages were cheap